Civic Engagement Fair

I learned many things from the civic engagement fair. I spoke with the Young Adult Ministry, Sierra Club, and Keep Pinellas Beautiful. The Young Adult Ministry works with other non profit organizations to meet the various needs of the community such as working with Salvation Army to help the less fortunate. They focus on Bible study and youth outreach and involvement as their mission. The agency represents young, faithful adults trying to make a difference. They are self-funded and also helped financially from their church. They seemed very nice, and I liked this organization. I also got information on the Sierra Club. Their mission is to protect the environment. They feel it is a need of the community to have a healthy environment to live in, so they plan outings and events to do so. They also do things like hiking and camping events to teach people about the environment. It seems like a really great group, but I feel that while teaching others about the problems is great, doing something is better so I would rather fund another organization. Lastly, I spoke with Keep Pinellas Beautiful. This organization is very fascinating. They administer litter cleanups such as adopt a shore, pond, etc. They have hotlines where people can call to report a littering problem in their area. They then do assessment of these areas and find someone to adopt them and take care of the problem four times a year. They are a subcontractor. They feel that it is a need of the community to have healthy, clean areas without litter. I thought this agency was very well informed, and interesting to hear about.

There is still more information that I would want to know. Although these organizations are fabulous, they don't attract me enough to want to fund their needs. I really want to help with something closer to my heart. I just want to feel more passionate about this experience. Also throughout the leadership program I have been working with Ocean Conservation, along with many other students participating in the program. Environmental agencies are great, but I want to do something different.

Organizations that I would love to get more information on are charities dealing with critical human needs, such as homelessness, cancer, or drunk driving. I have never seen more homeless people, until I came to downtown St. Petersburg. I am not financially stable enough to help them directly, but being able to donate to organizations that can means a lot to me. Also, everyone knows someone that has been affected by cancer, and I feel that it would be a really amazing experience to help them. Lastly, ending drunk driving is a critical need to the community because so many people get hurt if not killed by drunk drivers, and it really needs to stop. I would request for proposal to help this problem by discussing the problem and what the organization does to fix it. I would use their history on how they have affected the issue.