My mom has been trying to get rid of old dance trophies that my sister and I have collected over the years. I remember how much winning those trophies meant to us and how wasteful it was to just throw them out. Instead of getting rid of them, I decided to keep the trophies, clean them up and give them to our Starfish Corps participants at the end of the year. My sister asked me why I didn’t collect enough trophies for all of my team’s after school program kids, rather than just the Starfish Corps?
I thought, why not? I could ask other dance team families to donate their old trophies. I was sure we could find enough. When my dance teacher found out about my project, she suggested setting up a donation table at a local competition, which would enable me to reach out to a larger number of dancers.
So, this past Saturday, I attended the Broesler School Feis (pronounced “fesh” and is the Irish word for “competition”) in Whippany, New Jersey. I wore my City Year jacket and set up an info table that doubled as a trophy drop off area. I made a photo album to display pictures of the students that my team and I work with. This gave the people who donated a vision of who their trophies would go to. I was even introduced to a dancer who is joining another AmeriCorps program this summer. Dancers from dozens of different schools visited my table and by the end of the day, I had received well over 400 trophies!
My sister and I are now working on fixing up the trophies. We are also designing new labels for each set of trophies. I am excited to give as many as we can to the kids that we serve. I promised the families who so graciously donated their well-loved awards, that each one is going to bring a smile to a child’s face.
Laura C., 22, corps member, FirstTrust team at Shaw Middle School
Photos also by Laura C.
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