School may be out for the summer, but for the Seventh Day Adventist Garland Spanish church, giving back to the Garland community is a year-round event.
More than 20 members of the church’s youth group volunteered at the Achievement Center of Texas, or ACT, a nonprofit care center for special needs children and adults. There, the youth group witnessed the positive impact volunteering has on others as well as themselves.
Deivi Garcia, youth pastor at the Seventh Day Adventist Garland Spanish Church, said it was the church’s first time volunteering at ACT.
“We’re just doing what the Bible says – to help our neighbors,” Garcia said. “We’re trying to teach them how to learn how to give and invest time in others. We’re definitely coming back to this place to do it again.”
Garcia and his youth group constructed arts and crafts, played basketball and danced with clients of ACT. They also assisted caretakers in their classrooms.
Evelin Perez, a youth group member, said through this experience she is able to take a step back from her own life and see life from another person’s perspective. Perez encouraged other students not to be afraid to volunteer.
“I feel like when I give back to the community, it does come back to me,” Perez said. “I just like to see their smiles. It brightens up my day.”
More than 132 students attend the Achievement Center of Texas. The ages of the students range in age from 3-74.
According to Marilynne Serie, executive director at ACT, volunteers are very important to these students because they let ACT members interact with people from the community instead of only people with disabilities.
“Furthermore, volunteering at the Achievement Center helps to educate the public and reduce any misconceptions individuals may have about those with mental or physical disabilities,” Serie said. “They’re just people. They like the same things that everyone else likes. They just may not be able to express it. They’re just people like anybody else.”
ACT caretaker Clifton King believes the foundation of the Achievement Center is compassion.
“The clients here, they’re our children,” King said. “We treat them just like our children just like they’re one of our own. And like I said, I can’t emphasize love enough.”
To check on volunteer opportunities, visit the Achievement Center’s website: http://achievementcenteroftexas.org/volunteer/