In the Service of What?

In this article, the reader learns about different stories of students engaging in service learning projects. Immediately, I thought about a story on the Today Show about a local boy from Rhode Island who has already donated about 31,000 shoes to homeless children across the country. Here is his story:

http://www.today.com/news/teens-gotta-have-sole-charity-kick-starts-hope-homeless-kids-2D80544039



One day, his mom took him to a homeless shelter so he could see the reality of today's world. She did not want to shelter him from the harsh truth because he does live a comfortable life. His mom never thought his experience would turn into a life changing opportunity for her son.

He started donating his own shoes to local homeless children and his actions just spiraled from there. He now is in almost all 50 states and has an organization called "Soles4Souls".

I feel this is a very positive outcome of community service and it was not even forced upon him by his school or family. These actions were on his own and shows how service learning can have such a positive affect on both the giver and the receiver.