Every year, students and staff members of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) coordinate a service trip over spring break. This year, 14 students and two staff members traveled to Central Florida to volunteer their time at the Give Kids the World (GKTW) facility.
The students were able to apply the values enforced by Etown’s motto “Educate for Service” by working with terminally ill children and their families. The facility is a non-profit village in Central Florida. Organizations such as Make-A-Wish send families to stay at GKTW for free when they are visiting Walt Disney World, Universal Studios or Sea World.
The GKTW village accommodates the needs of the terminally ill child and his or her family. No child gets left out, and no family is treated any differently.
Junior Isiah Farrow, predicted a much different setting. “The time I spent in Give Kids the World was a much happier setting than I expected. I thought that the focus of our volunteer work was to assist families as they cope with the difficulties of raising a child with a terminal illness; the trip was quite the opposite,” he said.
Farrow admired that “the place was designed so that the families did not have to think about the stress that they have been going through within the past months or years.”
“We worked to ensure that the families were all happy and that they were able to enjoy a wonderful vacation with their families,” he said.
Many of the children the students worked with will not survive into adulthood. The volunteers’ main priority was to help the kids and their families to forget about the illness that overwhelm their lives and appreciate the fun atmosphere of GKTW.
Students helped provide assistance in a multitude of ways. The volunteers rotated through different jobs to increase the number of opportunities for the guests to have fun in Florida.
Their jobs and responsibilities included creating a mini trick-or-treat walk, serving breakfast at the Gingerbread House Restaurant, delivering pizza, working an ice cream shop, running a carousel, managing a spa and working in a castle where children can put a star on the ceiling.
Students were also able to enjoy the warm Florida weather. They had opportunities to attend either Walt Disney World or Universal Studios. Student volunteers also had time to swim with manatees between their shifts.
Along with working with GKTW, students were also given the opportunity to work with local church groups to aid the homeless individuals in the area.
“Give Kids the World is one of the most incredible places I’ve ever seen, and they are a very well-run organization,” Alicia Froh, a junior student volunteer, said. “Everything is focused on making a fun, relaxing and magical experience for the families.”
“The children made a huge impact on volunteers and employees,” Farrow said.
Froh said one of the greatest things she was able to experience on the trip was working in the ice cream shop. “I loved seeing the kids create whatever frozen treats they wanted,” she said. “The families can have as much ice cream as they want during their stay since it’s free for them, like everything else in the village.”
Froh recalled one extremely overwhelmed mother bursting into tears when she realized everything was free for her and her family.
Matthew Ascah, the director of the CCCE, was unable to go on the trip but was the brains behind the operation. He is responsible for the CCCE’s finances and programming and Community-Based Learning courses.
“The bulk of the planning, organization and facilitation of this trip was completed by our amazing program coordinator, Sharon Sherick. Sharon has been with the CCCE for many years and we simply couldn’t function without her skills, expertise and deep knowledge base,” Ascah said.
For more information about the CCCE, visit Nicarry 236.
