VOLUNTARY SERVICE

I think that voluntary service can contribute to the moral growth of a teenager. I am a group organizer for children aged 5-6 to 13-14 (from the first grade of the elementary school to the third one of the middle school) in Mortegliano, and I like doing it. We are a group of 40-50 students and, in the summer, we organise a summer centre: 3 weeks' activities and trips (once a week); in the winter, every Saturday, we spend the afternoon playing with the children.
But we aren't the only voluntary group organizers in my area … there are also other towns like Codroipo, Varmo, Lestizza, Basiliano, Talmassons, Camino al Tagliamento, Bertiolo, Sedegliano and Castions di Strada which organise the same activities. In fact, we are part of a project called "WALKING TOGETHER", which aims at gathering teenagers with the "excuse" of organizing their free time.
Last year I organized a course in which I taught groups of about 12 children a week how to built a kite. But first I had to do a course to learn how to do it. In the last school weeks we are very busy: we have got to prepare courses and meetings and get ready for the summer centre.
I started doing this type of service when I was 15 years old, probably because I wanted to help the other group organizers do this job: they had been my organizers till the year before and I was old enough to be one of them.
I think that a young person cannot be obliged to do voluntary service or he will do it badly. You have to feel you want to do it and you have to work hard so that it may be a successful activity.

Wr. by Luca G.