roanokeva2017-blog

[roanokeva2017-blog]

Today was Thursday, the next to last day of service here in Roanoke, and half of the group was volunteering with the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center here and the other half was with Kissito PACE, where they aided in engaging low-income elderly with community outreach and games. At the VAMC, we worked with the Nutrition Department to help the Wok Life and Improvement Office to identify major problems with the food options provided to the VAMC staff of almost 2200 individuals. We were a think tank that interviewed a member of the Work Life and Development staff to identify the problems, the created a map of underlying issues, and helped create a road map to mitigate those issues and fix the problem. The problem we identified was that there was a lack of tools and knowledge available to the staff to prepare and pack a healthy lunch. in our action plan we developed we will try and provide weekly recipes and directions on how to prepare the recipes, menus on the Kroger Click website to help save time on their grocery shopping, information on pre-prepared food delivery options, and a cookbook with easy, medium, and advanced level recipes. In the afternoon, we went to different in-patient halls to provide surveys to the patients on how they like the quality of the food.

As our week comes to a close, I encourage all of my participants to reflect over the week they have had and pick out at least one thing they have done either through service, or through interaction with the local community members that they can bring back to Winston-Salem community. 

[roanokeva2017-blog]

Day 3 in Roanoke and this is Juno checking in! Like yesterday, we split into two groups: crew #1 to the good ol’ VA and crew #2 to Straight Smile Orthodontics. Crew #1 assisted with administration tasks to make sure veterans were getting the service they deserved. Crew #2 helped with taking x-rays, confirming appointment with patients, setting up for appointments, and PAINTED A TREE ON A WALL IN THE HALLWAY. At 5pm, we were honored to be able to participate in MLK Memorial March to show our support in the civil right movement. Even though it was raining, we stayed because AIN’T NO RAINDROP CAN STOP US. We are going back to Goodwill as well as working with PTSD patients at the Veterans Affairs! We are looking forward to do more for the community!

[roanokeva2017-blog]

Hey, this is Eileen from the Roanoke group checking in on day 2 of the trip! We were split up into two groups with one group went to Veteran’s Affairs hospital and the other group went to Goodwill. As a part of the Goodwill group, it is inspiring for us to see the opportunities that the Goodwill provides for the local community residents to get trained for special skills in order to have a better job for their lives. It is also touching to see the people having intellectual disabilities to have the opportunities to gain the rewarding feeling of getting paychecks from working on some basic but needed tasks. As a participant last year and a leader this year, it is grateful for me to see the community gardening that we advertised for last year to be put into use this year! Our group is looking forward to getting to know the Roanoke community better through our services in the next couple days! :)

[roanokeva2017-blog]

The gang’s all here!

WAB Roanoke has arrived!  Kari checking in with a quick update on Day 1.  We had an AWESOME dinner provided by Mt. Zion AME, learned about the history of the church, and had a great talk from Pastor Ziglar and members of the church about community and supporting one another.  “The test is,” she told us, “if this church disappeared tomorrow...would anyone miss it but the congregation? If the answer is no, we’ve got work to do.”  We’re so excited to work with the Veteran’s Affairs hospital and Goodwill tomorrow!