Day 2: Definitely Amazing, Dontcha Know!

The morning yielded no loss of excitement for the UNITE UIUC group in Minneapolis! Everyone enjoyed their continental breakfast before heading to the cars for our first service aspect of the trip. We ventured into the heart of the city to volunteer at Sharing and Caring Hands. Sharing and Caring Hands is an organization dedicated to fighting economic disparity by providing housing and other services to different families. It is a huge facility that can house 2,800 beds for members of the community that would otherwise be found on the streets.

At Sharing and Caring Hands we were tasked with managing a playroom of 20-30 kids ages 3-9 for a couple of hours. When we arrived we found out that we had complete autonomy over the kids for the time period. Our child caring skills were put to the test as we laughed, cried, smiled, and frowned through a variety of activities. When it was time to leave, the kids were reluctant to say good bye. It was really rewarding to be able to provide such an exciting experience for these children living at Sharing and Caring Hands.

UNITE in Action

Although this experience was extremely rewarding, there is a strong possibility that those hours will fade in the children's memory. This experience reminded all of us about the challenges that we may face as we enter into urban education. We left Sharing and Caring Hands with a deep respect for the organization and what it accomplished in the community. We arranged to get a tour of the facilities on Tuesday, so stay posted for a chance to learn more about this amazing organization!

We headed to Mall of America to experience some major shopping opportunities. The mall was massive with every single store you could imagine. In the middle of the mall was a Nickelodeon themed amusement parks with roller coasters and other rides. The group ate lunch and spent the rest of their time roaming the mall and shopping at different stores. At 8:00PM we went to a comedy show hosted by Michael Kosta who was a former UIUC communications graduate. During the bit, Michael picked us out as fellow Illini and spent a good portion of the show giving UIUC a good name. Michael also talked about the lack of homeless people he saw around Minneapolis. We wondered if Sharing and Caring Hands made a huge contribution to this claim. Even at the end of the day, it was good to understand another piece of the puzzle that is urban education.

We are all super excited to go to Opportunity High School tomorrow and get to see their education system first hand!

- B