To begin, I wanted to do something to help underprivileged people during these difficult times. Ultimately, this desire led me to provide emergency food assistance, build new garden planters, and upgrade HOPE for NOVA’s (a non-profit that serves underprivileged people) “Hope House” in Manassas.
First, I began by communicating with the charity (Hope for NOVA, a nonprofit dedicated to providing services for underprivileged people), and once we had decided on an idea, I started planning how we would proceed. I chose to use an online registration program to recruit people. It was a sound system because it allowed me to easily track how many people were coming and divvy up jobs. While working on this project, I found the most challenging aspect was ensuring we maintained social distancing. Because the project took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to ensure the Scouts were safe. My solution to this project was to have families show up instead of individual Scouts since it would limit the risk of spreading Coronavirus. I ended up having entire family units doing different parts of the project. One family would pull weeds, another family would build the planters, another would take out trees, and another would haul away any waste.
After completing this work, it was very satisfying to look back and see what I had completed. During this project, I learned it’s always better to over-plan than under-plan. I had underestimated the number of Scouts that I’d need to complete the project, and I had to deal with the consequences of that decision. I should have ensured that we had more than enough Scouts rather than just enough. But I was also able to work on my leadership skills. I learned the importance of making sure you know what everyone is doing at any time. I had some trouble ensuring everyone was doing what I thought needed to be done, but once I figured out how to be more attentive, all went well.
