Service Isn’t Always What You Plan

The sky said it all: dark, cloudy and foreboding. It was clear that our day trip with the Gang Reduction and Intervention Program with the City of Richmond was going to be a rainy one.

I was with a group of ten William and Mary students at a community festival on the South Side of Richmond, all of us geared up for a day of service as part of our Branch Out Regional alternative breaks. The group had learned about the city program that holds the festival every year. On the surface, it would be a fun day for all – with teen dance groups, rappers, and other performers, surrounded by information booths and games for kids.

The purpose was a little deeper, though. Bringing people together and creating a positive sense of community can reduce the likelihood of gang involvement for young people. We were there to run game booths, do art projects with children, and support their overall mission.

Just as we took our stations at the moon bounce and the mask-making tables, the sky opened up. The hundreds of attendees at the festival ran for their cars, and we huddled in the middle of a tent under a storm that threatened to make Dorothys out of all of us. A fellow volunteer rounded up ponchos, and we pulled up our hoods and began the clean-up process.

And so as it ended up, we spent much more time interacting with rented furniture and trash bags than members of the community. We were disappointed, to be sure. But after the hundreds of chairs and dozens of tables were loaded onto their trailers and every gum wrapper was picked up, we connected with the city employee who had invited us there. She explained how our presence was so helpful – and how, without the ten of us, she and her skeleton crew would have been there all night cleaning up.

Sometimes service doesn’t really work out like you plan. We went to the South Side expecting to learn about how gangs are a destructive force in the lives of communities and individuals, and to assist with efforts to decrease the dynamics that lead to gang membership. In tiny ways, we did – but we also built connections among ourselves, with the city employees, and with the three youth volunteers from the community who joined our efforts. We’ll see where those connections take us as we pursue future projects.