LCCAA Partners in Senior Service Day

posted 3/8/18 -- Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s observation, “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve,” Lorain High School seniors got out and gave back.

Lorain County Community Action Agency’s Youth Services Program partnered with Buckeye Health Plan, the school and its 400 senior students.

”It is always important to give back because it helps build community,” said Bobby Taylor, Youth Services Coordinator at LCCAA.

Students were all across the area working at a wide variety of places and performing a mixture of tasks. Some were at local elementary schools helping younger students with homework. Other sites included Catholic Charities the Animal Protective League, Second Harvest Food Bank and We Care We Share Ministries. LCCAA even had seniors helping them finish off their move to a new building in downtown Lorain.

“It gives that uniformity of bringing everyone together,” said Michael Hibbard, Community Relations Representative for Buckeye health Plan. “It aligns with Buckeye’s goal of transforming the community for better health.”

Multiple studies have shown volunteering benefits the volunteers as much as the cause they choose to help.

Dr. King noted, “You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Dedicating time as a volunteer helps people make new friends, expands networks, and helps boost social skills. According to Harvard Health Publications “researchers at the London School of Economics examined the relationship between volunteering and measures of happiness in a large group of Americans, they found the more people volunteered, the happier they were, according to a study in Social Science and Medicine.”

Or as Lorain High Senior Tatianna Ammons put it “Doing something to help someone else makes their day, but it makes you feel better too!”