Jeffrey Chen
To be honest, I was quite nervous when I first volunteered to work at Lu Wei Opportunity School. I had never taken care of younger children before, let alone disabled children. However, after helping out there for about two months, I realized that this experience taught me as many things as it did to the students.
Even through my nervousness, at the end of the first day, miraculously, I found out that Lu Wei acted as a second home to me. I became comfortable to volunteer at the school each day, while the teachers and students respected me. The teachers always mixed the daily schedules so that the children could do different things each day. The activities that they did were great for self-development, and to the class as a whole. The teachers were always patient with the kids, even if the children could not complete a task without assistance from others.
Volunteering there gave me a completely new perception of the disabled. Regardless of different physical appearances, the children at Lu Wei had a common goal for success. For example, every time that the teacher asks for someone to help, most of the students immediately raise their hands to volunteer. This made me think how I was exactly like that when I was their age. Also, when the teacher wants someone to turn off the lights, the child goes to the light switch in his own special way to help. After they complete the task at hand, they always smile and laugh happily. Witnessing these events, I have seen how disabled children can be equally as cheerful and peaceful as normal children, and they could be even better in some ways. When someone gives them a task to complete, the kids walk off to finish the job with no questions asked.
Also, the teachers prepared special events for the students that I thought were very beneficial for the kids’ growth. For instance, going to the recycling center was a great idea since it was imperative to teach the new generation that saving energy and resources is the first step in preserving our Earth. The kids were overjoyed when they went there, and they were laughed when they took turns going into the recycling center truck.
After the two months passed, my thoughts changed entirely. Thus, I thank the Lu Wei Opportunity School for giving me this opportunity to help out at their school, and I hope that I am able to continue volunteering to provide another helping hand. Thanks to all the teachers for making this a meaningful summer for me.
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志工姓名：陳明 體驗班級：小熊班
說實話，當我初踏入蘆葦啟智中心的時候，我充滿忐忑不安‧在家裡我是老么，從來沒照顧過小孩，更何況是行動有些不便的孩子‧不知道自己是否能做得好‧但是兩個月過去了，我深深知道這是難能可貴的經驗，我學到的就像這些孩子們一樣多‧
雖然剛開始有些手足無措，可是在第一天義工工作結束時，奇妙地，我對蘆葦似乎已有家的感覺了‧之後的每一天我都帶著愉悅的心情來，老師和同學也和我相處得很融洽‧老師總是靈活的調整每天的活動，讓孩子們能接觸學習不同的項目，不但幫助孩子個別的發展也兼顧團體的參與性‧雖然孩子們許多時候需要別人的幫助去完成某些項目，老師總是充滿著愛心來引導他們‧
在蘆葦做義工也讓我對身心障礙有了新的認識‧不論外在有什麼不同，這個年齡的孩子喜歡做的事是一樣的‧譬如，老師尋求幫忙的時候，孩子們會很快的舉手想幫忙‧這讓我想起我在這個年齡時也是這樣的啊‧當老師請孩子去關燈的時候，孩子總是用他獨特的方法走向開關去幫忙‧完成工作後也會展現愉快的笑容‧參與孩子們的活動讓我見到他們和所有的孩子一樣開心，平和，在某些方面他們做的還更好一點‧當他們被要求做某件事時，總是馬上行動‧
老師也安排了許多對孩子們很有意義的活動‧例如去參觀資源回收中心，我覺得就是一個很棒的活動，孩子們可以學習到節能減碳是拯救地球的第一步‧當他們輪流上到資源回收卡車時，孩子們各個樂翻了
過去兩個月我有許多想法改變了‧最後我想謝謝蘆葦啟智中心，給我這個機會當志工，希望將來繼續做志工幫助更多有需要的人‧也想謝謝所有的老師讓我有一個非常有意義的暑假。
