Reported by Cassie Tammy Wang
Greater Princeton AYLUS (GPA), NJ Branch, has many talented members. Since December 11th, 2018, we started to feature some of them on our web page, so all GPA members get to know each other. Hopefully, it would also help with more constructive and collaborative teamwork among GPA members in our volunteer activities! So here comes one of our team leaders, and so far the most active volunteer Amber Yu:
Self-Introduction Provided by Amber Yu:
I am Amber Yu, an 8th grader attending the West Windsor-Plainsboro District’s Thomas Grover Middle School. Before I joined GPA and became one of its team leaders, I had done volunteering such as working at a Homefront food pantry, at the school store to support our school, and being a counselor for two years at a summer camp, just to name a few. This year in the fall I was looking for new volunteering options. And now all of you know what happened when I learned about the GPA!
GPA provides me with plenty of means to volunteer. For example, the “EdTutoring” project, currently I am helping a child from our school district with his homework and social ability enhancement in the Mercer County West Windsor Library on weekday nights, for an hour per lesson, year-round. The parents of the child were very grateful for what I am willing to do for their son. I am also volunteering in the “Goodreads Review” program, i.e., after reading a book, I will write a review and send it to the Plainsboro Library Goodreads by email. The review includes an evaluation of the elements of the book (e.g. pacing, character development, style, mood, or use of images in non-fiction materials, etc.), which is more than just a summary of the plot. If my review is accepted, it will be published on the library’s Goodreads website and I will receive 30 minutes of volunteering time for the review.
Enjoying the “Humanistic Care” project as well, I spread lots of holiday cheer by participating the “A Day of Holiday Service” event hosted local in early December. I decorated Christmas cookies, wrote cheerful messages of encouragement, made personal care packages, and assembled hygiene kits for RISE and Arm In Arm families. Through everybody’s efforts, we were able to decorate around 600 cookies and made over 300 care packages. I felt that this event was a great opportunity to aid the local community. Each volunteer brought their talents and holiday cheer and were rewarded with smiles and laughter from residents and parents. It was a great way to build trust across cultures and faiths through encouraging community service, civic engagement, and creating community collaboration.
On December 30th, I will be performing with other GPA members at the Merwick Care & Rehabilitation Center in Plainsboro for a lot of seniors. This is another exciting opportunity offered by GPA on the year-round “Music from Heart” project. GPA is truly a great organization to bring holiday cheer and care for others.
In summary, I decided to become a part of this organization to give back to the community. I felt that joining this organization would provide me with more opportunities to challenge myself and serve people who need assistance. I wanted to have more friends join me with GPA, and spread joy and happiness throughout our community.
