Ancillary 6 & 7
I chose pictures of Millerton Lake, Riverpark, Fort Washington Country Club, Buchanan’s baseball field, and Old Town Clovis because I felt those represented what I did as a resident in Clovis and what the community did as a whole. I included Millerton Lake because I grew up wake surfing and wakeboarding and the same goes for Fort Washington Country Club (I played countless rounds of golf there). I chose to include Buchanan’s baseball field because I played baseball from when I was about 6 years old, all the way up until my senior year of high school. Also, high school sports, especially wrestling, baseball, and football, were a major part of the community and many people came to support on a nightly basis. Pictures of Riverpark and Old Town Clovis were included because I feel there were key places and served as a “break” from the real world for a lot of people in my community. I wanted to represent my community as an eventful, exciting, and entertaining town, which is why I purposefully did not choose to include museums or art exhibits.
To better understand the community that I’m working with through WaterDrop LA, I can go out to Skid Row and have conversations with the homeless individuals and talk to them about their personal situation and the things they’ve done to better it for themselves and others. Another thing I can do is research online about the situation as a whole and go into my volunteering experiences with an open-mind and with an attitude that will be positive in serving those in need.
Walking in downtown Los Angeles to get an overall glimpse of the city and its community helped me better understand that some areas are underserved due to their resources and lack of help they receive from others. Then, talking to the individuals in Skid Row during WaterDrop LA was a complete eye-opening experience because they were all so nice and genuine, while also being respectful. Admittedly, I’ve always associated the homeless with a bad connotation, but after getting to know some of their stories, it completely changed my viewpoint. This makes sense towards my community because I want people to see it in a positive light, instead of people negatively talking about my community and its people. It all comes full circle because I’ve realized that most of the time people are homeless, it’s due to factors that are out of their control. Therefore, my preconceived ideas of the homeless were completely wrong and I’ve now realized that it was unfair to stereotype them in a negative way, because they want their community represented well, just like myself.
