Name: Clarisa Vasquez Ruiz
From: Oxnard, California
Votes: 0
My
most memorable community service is volunteering for the H.E.A.R.T
Program through the Port Hueneme Police Station. This program is
mostly for elderly people in the city of Port Hueneme who give
consent for the Port Hueneme Police Advisors that run this program to
keep in contact with them to make sure they are doing okay. This
program gives them an option to decide if they want Police Officers
to check up on them or receive a phone call which follow with a
questionnaire to see if they are doing okay or have experienced any
bad things. As part of the Port Hueneme Explorer program I was given
the opportunity to volunteer for this program and have done 250 hours
of volunteer service for this program. As a volunteer I would call
the elderly who prefered phone calls. One of the challenges of
calling these elderly people is that sometimes they wouldn’t like to
get bothered and would hang up on you and it be hard to do the
questionnaire. Something that i’ve noticed volunteering for this
program was how they appreciated us calling them and checking up on
them. A call that I made for this one elderly lady made me really be
grateful for the work that I was putting into this program.She told
me that she was thankful for giving my time to check up on her
because she has no family around and that that phone call really made
her feel like if someone still cared for her. This has impacted me
tremendously because some of the elderly in this program as I have
seen have no family around them to come and check on them nor have
anybody who keeps in touch with them to see if they need any
groceries or need help around the house. I will forever be grateful
for the service I put into this program because I know how much that
phone call means to them. I was able to gain a lot of communication
skills through here and I know I will be able to contribute it in my
future career in Law Enforcement. Volunteering for the elderly
community in the city of Port Hueneme has made me realize how elderly
people appreciate the youth for their service but most importantly
how one simple call can make someone feel loved and cared.
