Community Corner

Nicole Labkoff, Stamford High School in Stamford

[Note: This is not the article where you should vote for this contestant. This is essayist No. 4, so in the voting article, which is here, just post a comment that says ‘4' to vote for this student. Voting is limited to one person per finalist per day, and closes at 11:59 p.m. on May 18. The finalist essay follows.] 

The phrase “community service” is an interesting term. “Service” gives the impression that you provide something for someone else, a completely altruistic act of kindness. Though this might be true in some cases, my experience was a bit different.

I have been involved in an organization called Friendship Circle for the past four years. In this organization, volunteer teens are paired with local special needs children and participate in enjoyable activities like sports,

cooking and music. Sometimes the activities take place in groups at a local synagogue, other times they take place in the child’s home. My first friend, Scott was a 9 year old child diagnosed with autism, who loved to run. In fact, running was his favorite pastime.

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I won’t lie to you, when I first started spending time with Scott it wasn’t rewarding or even enjoyable. Running with him got exhausting.  He wasn’t very good at communicating with words and he had even more difficulty listening.    I often left his house both fatigued and frustrated. I didn’t feel that I was making an impact in his life in any way. One day, after Scott and I had a particularly difficult afternoon, I decided to take a break from my “service.”

Each week another Sunday would come and go until it had been months since I had last seen Scott. I didn’t think about him as much as I should have until one night I was out to dinner with some friends when I saw Scott. He was clapping his hands and had the most goofy smile on his face. He kept chanting “Nicole Nicole.”  For some reason seeing Scott so excited made me feel like I had found something I lost. In that movement I realized how much I missed one of my closest friends.  I rushed over to him and said hello. Scott couldn’t speak everything he was feeling but he managed to say “I want to run,” with his warm smile and big expressive eyes. In that moment I missed our long afternoons together chasing him up and down the neighborhood.

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While I was leaving his house one afternoon, I bumped into another volunteer. It occurred to me that I was just one of many of Scott’s friends. He didn’t really need me personally. I wasn’t impacting him as strongly as I thought and if I wasn’t around someone else would fill my shoes. I even started questioning why I was part of Friendship Circle.  In reality however, I wasn’t part of Friendship Circle for Scott, I was part of it for myself.

When I started seeing Scott four years ago I was fueled by a desire to get involved and “give back” to the community.  I was under the impression that I was making a difference in Scott’s life. Although that might be true, I didn’t understand what kind of difference he was making in mine.

[Note: This is not the article where you should vote for this contestant. This is essayist No. 4, so in the voting article, which is here, just post a comment that says ‘4' to vote for this student. Voting is limited to one person per finalist per day, and closes at 11:59 p.m. on May 18.] 


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