Community Service!!!

Hey everyone!

There are several ways you can help out your community! SAGE is currently hosting two great community service programs, the Angel Tree Drive and the Maricopa Book Drive. Make sure to check them out, because they are both amazing ways to give back to your community! Here is some info on both of them:

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Angel Tree Drive

Where: The tree is currently set up in the DV Guidance Center.

When: All tags are due December 11th, 2008. That's a Thursday, so don't be late!

Who: The names of the requesters are on the tags, and their ages range from newborn to 50+.

Purpose: The Angel Tree Drive is a touching way to make one less fortunate person's Christmas much better! Each tag on the tree has the name of a person and two gifts that they are requesting. Our task is to help grant their wishes by going out and buying both gifts that they are asking for.

How: Once you take a tag, you must sign up in the Guidance Department by giving your name, the name of the person that will be recieving your gifts, and the names of the two gifts you are donating. Afterwards, when you bring your unwrapped gifts in, you should attach the tag to the presents before placing them underneath the tree. Remember, leave them unwrapped!

About the SAGE Angel Tree Drive (From Mr. White):

The SAGE Angel Tree Drive is in conjunction with A New Leaf (formerly PREHAB of Arizona), an organization that serves the needs of families who are homeless and/or abused. For those of you not familiar with the program, every year the Desert Vista SAGE Club coordinates a school wide program to fulfill a two item wish list for hundreds of individuals who are homeless, either because of financial reasons or because they are seeking safety from an abusive home. As you may already know, hard financial times mean that rates of homelessness and domestic abuse increase; as a result, A New Leaf is experiencing an overwhelming number of needy families. Therefore, we are looking to assist 200 individuals, as opposed to our normal 150. If you feel as though you might be financially strapped this year, understand that many of the items individuals ask for are quite simple, such as diapers, a teething toy, a packet of toy cars, a doll, a pad of paper, etc. It is important that the needs of these individuals are served, so whether you are or are not able to give this year, please pass this information to friends and family.

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Maricopa Book Drive

Where: The boxes are located in the library, the Guidance Office, and the front office

When: Similar to the Angel Tree Drive, books are due on Thursday, December 11, 2008

Who: The receivers of these books will be the students of the Maricopa Unified School District, schools K-8.

How: This book drive is for anybody with dusty picture books stashed away at home! These books may no longer hold any importance to you, but they can help out a needy kid. Books can be dropped off at any of the three centers mentioned above. Please make sure they are age appropriate! Books can be newly purchased or used, and sign-up sheets will be placed next to each box if you wish to receive community service hours.

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More opportunities...

Another great community service opportunity to look out for is the Festival of Lights. 100+ volunteers are needed on November 29th, and it's a fun way to earn your community service hours!

The kick off party is on November 29th, 2008. There are four shifts that you can currently apply for:

Shift #1 - 10:30 am - 1:30 pm
Shift #2 - 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Shift #3 - 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Break Down - 7pm to 10pm

Activities include working at the game booths, selling tickets, manning an inflatable activity, working in concession booths, and much more!

Also, you can sign up to work at the Hayrides (Saturdays, December 13th and 20th) and the Light Removal (Saturday, January 10th, 2009)

For more information on signing up for the Festival of Lights, you can contact Alix Parker, president of Desert Vista's Key Club.

You can also apply directly at their home page:

http://www.folaz.org/volunteers.php

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I hope to see everybody participating in these great events! Remember, both the Maricopa Book Drive and the Angel Tree Drive come to a close on December 11th, 2008.

~Grace Ma, Community Service Officer

Did you know?!

Just to let you know, we will be posting every Tuesday and Friday so be sure to check the blog!!!

Did you know that SAGE has an email? It's dvsageclub.com@gmail.com! Try it out! Send us an email!

Mentorship is a big part of SAGE this year. This is a great program where freshman and sophomores can ask juniors and seniors for help on almost anything. Hopefully this will make their high school experience easier. Are you a part of it? If not, send us an email and you could become a mentor or mentee!

We are currently updating our club database. SAGE has collected information from almost every club on school and compiled a list. We will provide sponsor names, meeting times/locations, etc. so check the Activities page and the SAGE blog for updates! Hopefully we'll have it ready in a few weeks.

SAGE has also made a college list. Our college information coordinators have created a list of tons of colleges and important information! We will make that available to everyone ASAP.

Want to listen to a lecture from a university? Watch some of our videos. We have several video lectures from different colleges. The links are posted on the left side of the blog!

Pictures on the college brochures are great. But, what's better than the real thing? Check out our college photos collection to see pictures that SAGE members have taken while visiting campuses. If you have some college pictures you would like to share, send them to SAGE! Just let us know what college it is.

SAGE also has many community service opportunities so be sure to check the blog or email SAGE for more information.

Last but not least, please look forward to The Forum, a newspaper-like publication with pieces about politics, tests, etc. (And with no grammar mistakes!). Literary works will also be included!

Hopefully this has helped you learned about what SAGE has to offer this year. See you at the next meeting! (It will the Wednesday afte Fall Break and will be another PSAT review session)

- Christine Hsieh
SAGE President

The Maricopa Book Drive: Coming Soon!

Here’s a quick heads up from the Community Service Department:

Some time after Spring Break, the Maricopa Book Drive will be up and running. We will be collecting new or gently used books to give to an elementary school that needs them. This event is a great way to get volunteer hours and clean up your bookshelf at the same time! All of these books will be going to a great cause, and you’ll be helping out the many kids who are less fortunate than we are.

-Grace

How to Approach Community Service

Community service can be one of the most enjoyable things to do - I can truthfully say that I help out because it’s fun, and not just because I think it looks good on my resume (this seems to be the reason most people do anything nowadays).

When choosing what community service you want to participate in, select one that reflects what your interests are. If you want to be a doctor later on in your life, volunteer at the hospital – in doing so, you can get a little taste of what you’ll be facing in the future. However, if you don't know what your future career path will be, don't worry -simply volunteer in a field that interests you. For example, if you are passionate about Spanish, you can volunteer at a place where a lot of Spanish is spoken to get practice with the language; if you really like sports, you can volunteer as coach for a little league team. In this way, the possibilities are endless.

The key to an enjoyable community service experience is to pick a job that genuinely interests you. Don't pick something just for the sake of getting a lot of hours; for colleges and for yourself, the quality of those hours are much more important than the quantity. Thus, if done correctly, community service can truly enrich your high school experience -which is what is was intended to do in the first place.

The catch is that often these community service opportunities can be difficult to find. Sometimes you can find out about them through word-of-mouth, or on the Internet. There is a nice little link to the left side labeled ‘Community Service,’ which has a list of volunteer opportunities compiled by SAGE. In addition, http://www.volunteermatch.org is a great resource. However, if you need any help looking for community service opportunities don't hesitate to contact us either by commenting on this blog or by sending us an email at dvsageclub.com@gmail.com. Don't be afraid to use us as a resource; we're here to help you out.

-Grace