This summer, we have partnered with YouthServe, a program for teenagers that promotes volunteerism and leadership. This great organization is located just a short walk away from our location in Avondale. Each YouthServe week, a group of around 10 youth worked at Christian Service Mission doing a variety of things! One of the first projects they tackled in the summer heat was cleaning donated industrial kitchen equipment. One group tackled organizing and sorting donations in the warehouse. Another group harvested vegetables and weeded tomato plants in our garden behind the warehouse, then cleaned out a room to prepare it to be painted.
Then a YouthServe group spent a day washing rocks! No, we weren’t out of projects for them, we just needed our rocks cleaned off from all miscellaneous particles and dust so they could go in our aquaponics beds! Aquaponics is a method of gardening that combines hydroponics with growing fish to produce very healthy plants! The silt on the rocks can clog up filters and introduce toxins to the otherwise very clean environment so these volunteers had a really important job! (See pictures) Some of the projects YouthServe tackled are more fun than others, but they are always committed to doing their best with great attitudes!
While they are experiencing ways to make a positive difference in their community, these helpful hands get a lot of work done quickly and allow our small staff to focus on the tasks volunteers can't do. Jeri Bagley, YouthServe staff leader told us, "YouthServe loved serving with Christian Service Mission. There are so many ways to serve with CSM which gave YouthServe campers the opportunity to serve in different ways and see all the ways CSM was helping Birmingham communities. All the staff at CSM are wonderful and kindly welcomed our campers." We love having volunteers and are so thankful for YouthServe Bham’s huge help this summer!
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| Filling buckets with rocks that will be washed |
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| Rocks washed as to not clog up aquaponics system |
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| Rocks being transferred to the aquaponics beds |
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| The inside of the finished aquaponics beds |
