Marching along.....Final Entry Summer II

D:  This summer has moved along at an extremely fast clip.  The first semester of the summer included my vacation, so not very much was accomplished for Service Learning activities for the first 8 weeks.  Beginning in July, our group of volunteers went about planning a summer fundraiser for August 13th.  Sadly, we did not get enough participation to follow through with this event.  We did spend some time planning for it, though.  I believe a deterent to the participation was summer and vacations.  The March of Dimes does not usually have a summer fundraising event, the idea was good, but the timing was bad.  We may include this in our fall line-up or a kick-off to the walks in the spring, instead.  The objective for me this summer was to get about 5 hours of SL time in active fundraising and community events.  However, instead of this I did get 5 hours of time in for planning for the October 19 Signature Chef's Auction and the November 18-26 Festival of Trees week-long events.

E:  While I was disappointed that we did not get enough team participation in the "Cornhole" event for August, I was especially thrilled to get to plan for the upcoming events that are a huge success in the fall.  The first event is a Signature Chef's Auction where local chef's cook for the event (free) and businesses donate auction items for fundraising.  Last year's event raised over $75,000 for the local community.  One of the big ticket items last year was Oprah tickets to the last season which netted over $2000!  Part of the planning for my piece is to ask local families with premature infants to tell their story via a mission board.  The board is a professionally designed with the infant's birth pictures and recent pictures with their names and a brief story told by the family.  This story is from the parental perspective surrounding the birth of their premature infant.  These stories can be quite powerful.  The boards are poster-sized and are placed around the chef's tables.  This is a big endeavor as we get new families to do this about every 2-3 years.  The boards are used in many of the events.  Another of my goals was to increase volunteerism to March of Dimes through the NICU nurses at work.  A part of our clinical ladder, community outreach and volunteerism are a huge piece of advancement.  Nurses are encouraged to be role models in our community, as well as in our facility.  Another fundraiser occurs during Thanksgiving.  Local businesses decorate trees and they are auctioned off at a formal dinner party and dance.  This event raises monies for our vulnerable preemie population in our rural community.  All the money stays on the Eastern Shore to help families with needed services and to help with nursing education.  Obviously, this is a diverse population as prematurity knows no social, economic or racial boundaries.

AL:  As usual, this SL endeavor has taught me so very much.  Planning for these events takes determination, dedication and a spririt of outreach.  It also takes ingenuity as everyone is on a tight budget.  For example, our NICU has had to discontinue its Preemie Reunion Party for lack of funds.  However, together with our facility and the March of Dimes, we are able to bring it back this year as part of the Children's Party during the Festival.  Our facility will fund the invitation making & sending, the local community has offered 2 big cakes with candles for each family. If the children are able they can place their candle on the cake to light or their parents can do it in their honor. A local eatery is supplying finger foods.  The new craft shop is supplying several crafts and we will honor the Preemies during a brief ceremony.  The cost of this entire project is some paper and stamps!  With this endeavor I am able to learn more about my community and the services it provides and the services it needs.  I also learned during this planning phase about March of Dimes grants that are available to our community.  I will be able to write a grant requesting funds to initiate a Preemie Support group or to provide continuing education to our Obstetric, Neonatal and Women's Health patients and nurses.  I am planning to continue my volunteer efforts over the course of the fall, am inviting the March of Dimes liaisons to our Shared Leadership meetings to discuss what volunteers can offer the MOD, and am looking forward to writing a grant for education.  The March of Dimes is a fantastic organization that seeks to improve the health of the infant and maternal population in our area.  As a NICU nurse, it is an honor to give back to such a worthy organization. 

Thank you!  Angie

Ash, S. & Clayton, P. (2009). Generating, deepening, and documenting learning:  The power of critical reflection in applied learning.  Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1, 25-48.