Michigan Youth Pledge to Serve at 2009 Service and Leadership Camp

Nearly 125 youth from across the state made a personal pledge to service at the 2009 Service and Leadership Camp, held July 24, 25, and 26 in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. The annual camp is sponsored by The LEAGUE, the Michigan Community Service Commission, and Learn and Serve – Michigan and aims to join students from across the state to learn leadership skills they can use to advocate for service in their schools.

This year’s event, “Super Servers: Taking on the Challenge of Service,” featured activities such as teambuilding, a Challenge Day program, service projects, and workshops for teachers and students. The Challenge Day program engaged the students in a highly experiential workshop that provided tools and life skills to encourage an environment of acceptance, love, and respect. The students partnered with “Kids Against Hunger,” a nonprofit organization that packages and ships highly nutritious, life-saving meals to starving and malnourished children in developing countries and the United States.  Camp participants helped pack meals to be distributed in their own communities and globally.

A special recognition of service helped round out the weekend’s activities as 12 youth in attendance received the President’s Volunteer Service Award. All the recognized youth have devoted at least 50 hours to volunteer service in the past year, qualifying them for the prestigious award which recognizes individuals, families, and groups with lapel pins, recognition certificates, and a letter signed by President Obama. Michigan Community Service Commission Board Member Breannah Alexander presented the following recipients:

Carson City-Crystal Area Schools
Amber Craig

Detroit Service-Learning Academy
Cinque Littleton

Honey Creek Community Schools
Fin Seely
Ella Steiger

Pathfinder School
Dorothy Buening
Suzy Mitchell

Romulus Community Schools
Elea’ele Buford
Alex Carter
Deshar Dinkins
D’Mario Ellis
Victoria Mangham
Sierra Smith

As mentioned earlier, all of the students made a personal pledge to service while attending this year’s camp. Below is a sampling of those pledges:

I pledge to care more, to get up off my butt, and to do something.

I pledge to recycle more than I do now.

I pledge to help maintain a clean and safe community and to always be kind and caring towards others.

I pledge to stop kids teasing each other.

I pledge to tell my teacher that I want to do a penny drive. Then to give the money to the animal shelter.

I pledge to do five service projects with a good cause.

I pledge to help the Earth, the homeless, and the elderly. To plant a tree, to pick up trash, whatever it takes to be of service.

I pledge to get my family involved in more community service activities.

I pledge to save energy by turning off lights.

I pledge to be a better person.