Club News: Make an iMPACT Introduces Itself
By: Kendall Haney,
Jr. Infectious Disease Correspondent
On September 24th, 2014, club sponsors Jeremy Davis, Julie Davis, and Shanna Bachman prepped a kindergarten-high school aged audience for what was to come for club members this year: serve always and share often.
The overall theme for the night was that you are “Never too young or too old to make an impact on this world.” Julie Davis especially expressed her enthusiasm for the diversity in the ages present. As an introductory ice breaker, meeting attendees and sponsors played a warm game called “Would You Rather?” and related it to how people’s actions could make an impact on the world.
One game question appeared to stand out most to students and teachers alike. “Would you rather be super popular with everyone, or would you rather be the smartest person in the room all the time?” Julie Davis asked the students. The vast majority of students responded that they would rather be super smart. Ms. Davis was the lone wolf who said she’d rather be super popular. When asked why, she responded that there was an adage that said people never really care about what you know until they know how much you care.
For a moment after that, there was silence in the student’s communication chat box.
“There are plenty of ways to affect our own local community, and the people around us,” Jeremy Davis chimed in afterwards, and when it was his turn to give a formal introduction of himself he related a story of how he helped a neighbor who eventually succumbed to cancer. Mr. Davis mowed the neighbor’s lawn, lent items, and he and his family were a general set of extra helping hands to the wife and children of his sick friend. Why do this? Because it was the right thing to do. Did it make an impact—a difference—in the lives of the neighbors? Absolutely.
In conclusion, the club sponsors wanted to stress to students that this was a service-oriented club actively encouraging students to take a leadership role in their community. Be creative. Find a way to help. Be bold and take action. For example, Mrs. Davis said that students can help the elderly by calling and/or visiting them in their homes. Students can deliver food to those in need. They can help the community in things like fundraisers. Simple things that people can do in their everyday lives, things that people of all ages can do, go a very long way.
Club sponsors wanted everyone to know that it isn’t that hard to make an impact on someone’s life. Contrary to popular belief, people don’t need to travel all over the world, or cure some deadly disease to make an impact in their communities. Something as simple as a surprise visit to a next door neighbor, can be the difference. It’s not that hard to make an impact. The mission of this club appeared to beg the question: so what is stopping you?