The first portion of my service based learning hours is from volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club. Through the Maine Concussion Management Initiative, a group I have been a research assistant from just shy of a year now, one of the UNECOM students and I reached out to local Boys and Girls Club coordinators to present with hands on activities to 9-12 year olds how to recognize, respond and recover from concussions. We went to the Portland and South Portland Boys and Girls Clubhouses. This took a bit of collaboration crafting multiple hands-on activities for the kids, setting up zoom meetings with the directors and more to ensure an enriching experience for the kids. As someone who has been a summer camp counselor for years it was so exciting and rewarding to be working with kids again but this time through a public health lense to prevent and reconizie injuries. 

The second portion of my service based learning hours are from the blanket Affirmation Project. What this is is a student-led project to create large fleece tie blankets with care packages for those who need them. Our group coordinated with Preble Street which is in Portland, Maine and our team was able to make 15 double sided fleece blankets. Additionally we also made cards with a variety of resources including numbers of homeless shelters, soup kitchens, etc. Some of our hours spent were brainstorming ideas, creating a budget, and compiling lists of resources.