Since the weeks of volunteering have played out, our group realized that we would not be able to all get together to volunteer, realistically. This being said, volunteering at different times has really benefitted our understanding of the Boys and Girls Club of Muncie. From volunteering as the fun assistants, to being tutors during “power hour”, to helping in the lunch area, our group has been able to see the ins and outs of the club from multiple viewpoints. With this, we have been able to come together as a strong force and discuss what we believe is working and could use improvement within the club. After Ryan Walker volunteered for example, he explained that his first experience involved studying in small groups with a volunteer to assist the students in their studying. Walker appreciated the small group atmosphere, but suggested that the kids could possibly sit with kids from different schools. Walker believed that this could help students socialize and meet other kids while also working on their homework for the day.

Another perspective of the club came from Ryan Vann, who volunteered as a Fun Assistant for his first volunteer experience. Some key points that Vann noticed about his volunteer experience related to the age of the students and the quantity of students in each group. For example, Vann pointed out that the 2nd and 3rd graders had the largest amount of kinds, which resulted in a really fun game of sharks an minnows, but also noticeable disorganization, considering that there weren’t enough volunteers to balance out the amount of children in the gym at one time. This contrasted Vann’s experience with the younger kids, which involved more of a focus on having fun and helping one another, rather than competing to win when playing games. Vann also enjoyed volunteering with the 4th and 5th graders in a different sense, because he was able to participate in a game of dodgeball that allowed him to have fun with the kids. This perspective emulates the idea that events in the future could be fun for both the staff and the students if they are geared towards involving the volunteers in the fun with the students.

On a different note, some improvements that Brady Hertel saw necessary within his first few times volunteering consisted of his observation of sharing and working with others. Hertel volunteered as a Fun Assistant as well in his first experiences as volunteer, and noticed that most of the kids at Muncie’s Boys and Girls club are African American, while there are smaller amounts of other ethnicities. Speficially, Hertel notes that, “the majority of the white kids are secluded and either shoot the basketball by themselves or ride the scooter by themselves.” Based on this being Hertel’s first time observation of the club, he suggested that volunteers should work more efficiently to get kids involveed with each other as a whole, especially with a focus on accepting diversity. With this perspective, it seems a fair assumption to think that students will possibly collaborate better if they view each other as individuals with unique backgrounds, rather than breaking off into their usual friend groups. How this specific adjustment to the club should be made is something that our group is still in the process of contemplating.

As for my personal experiences, I volunteered as the Fun Assistant as well, and have noticed that the kids work particularly well together when they are playing on the scooters, but this also only pertains to the really young kids as far as I have been able to observe. As well, I noticed that certain parts of the facility could be updated to show more appreciation and comfortability for the students, including how school work and crafts are displayed, along with how the game room is set up. I have noticed particularly that there are banners hung up in the main lobby that kids have made, but they have not changed since I started volunteering. This makes me question whether the banners are current, or if students pay attention to/ appreciate the work that they are displaying for others. An idea that I considered from this analysis is that displayed projects can be switched out on a consistent basis to promote greater motivation and appreciation of academic success for the kids.