A Service-Filled Weekend By Alfred Garcia

The weekend of October 26 and 27 was a long weekend for me filled with service.  I did around fifteen hours of service in just two days.  Let’s just say it took me well over the 20 hours required.  There were three big events that weekend: the District Camporee with the Boy Scouts, a haunted walk, and the Safe and Seen trick-or-treating and I did all of them.  Saturday started off at 8AM when we all met to go to the District Camporee.  I honestly didn’t know what to know what to expect from the event.  All I knew was that it was “sports themed” and me and sports don’t mix very well sometimes.  After having gotten the wrong directions, the group I was with arrived at the Camporee and we all headed to wherever we felt most comfortable.  I ended up going to the “teambuilding” area where we had a blast playing with the kids.  We did everything from playing with a parachute to sack races and there were even these really cool stilts that we got to play with.  Honestly, we were having as much fun (maybe even more) than the kids there.  After the Camporee, a car full of people headed to Black Moshannon State Park for the haunted walk.  We arrived early so we helped the park rangers with some of the decorations for the haunted walk.  We basically made ghosts out of balloons.  We were freezing but at least we had a good time.  After helping the park rangers out we dressed up in our costumes, which ranged from lumberjacks to witches and went out into the woods along the path.  Grace and I ended up having to sit outside a Cabin with a man named Shawn who had a little scene prepared for the walk.  Basically we were creepy hillbillies sitting outside a cabin playing banjos and handing out candy.  What could honestly be better than that?  That night we got back to campus at around 9.  It was honestly a good 13 hours spent with my APO brothers.  The next day was the Safe and Seen Trick-or-Treating at Spike Stadium.  We helped decorate parts of the Stadium and then we chose stations to work at during the actual event.  Heli, Ashley J, Alana, Dani, and I decided we wanted to man the “mini-game” station.  We ran the station where kids would come and either play bowling or try tossing a ball through a hole.  I got to see so many cool little kids’ costumes that day, it was pretty awesome.  Part of the line was pretty much backed up because of us, so many of the kids wanted a try at the games.  After the event was over we all helped clean up and went home.  I had never done so many hours in one week, let alone one weekend, before and I can honestly say that it was great.  It was an eventful weekend and definitely one of my favorite times as a member of this chapter.

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