I volunteered for the Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows event “Boys & Girls Nite Out” on March 23, 2011. This event is the highlight of the Boys & Girls Club Week held in March every year. During this annual event the Club is transformed into a kid’s circus and carnival with food, games with prizes, bounce houses, and circus acts.
The fun started at 4:30pm when I arrived at the Boys & Girls Club. I was exhausted after a long day of work and then I walked in and saw about 1,000 rambunctious kids, okay maybe it was only a few hundred but still intimidating to me. The adorable kids were dressed in bright blue shirts and they were bouncing off the walls so I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I checked in and then headed to the small gym. In the gym they had all of the grown-ups sit on one side and then they would line us up and pair us with two children each. My assigned kids were the cutest kids, their names were Patrick and Angel. I especially liked them because the kid right before them was a crier and I would have been a little freaked out if the kid was crying before we even got the program started.
Patrick was a lot like me, very outgoing and quite a force to reckon with. Angel was…well…an angel. Very quiet at first and polite. Patrick knew what he wanted to do so he took off across the gym with me and Angel chasing him. The first stop was the bounce house. There was a line and the kids were already complaining. So I figured I would tell them how many kids were in front of them and then they could decide to wait in line or move on. Both kids were 6 years old and about 4 feet tall so they couldn’t really see how many other kids were in front of them. After the first count it was on and they wouldn't give up. They would ask every few minutes how many kids were in front of them and in their minds it made the line move faster, I couldn’t believe my line counting trick worked to distract them. I only wish grown-ups were this easy to trick.
After the bounce house we went and played games at the carnival hosted by volunteers from our community. Patrick’s mom came early so he left us. As soon as Patrick was gone Angel came out of his shell. He was so excited to make the decisions. Angel told me about his older siblings so I could tell based on how he acted that he didn’t get to make a lot of decisions in his life. So I made sure that Angel had a big adventure and got to call all the shots. I let him pick all the games and carnival exhibits. He won enough tickets for Cotton Candy so he was pretty excited about that.
My favorite conversation of the night with Angel started off with him asking me “Why are you so nice?” I replied “Because I was born that way, why are you so nice?”. With a very serious face and a little hint of sarcasm he said “Because I am sweet”. He had an attitude, like duh lady, don’t you know I am the sweetest kid ever. It was very funny, I love how things are so simple for kids and they know what they know.
Finally Angel’s mom came to pick him up and my duty as a volunteer at Boys & Girls Nite Out was over. It was a very fun night, exhausting but fun. At the end of the event I was sad because I said goodbye to Patrick and Angel and I knew I probably would never see them again. It broke my heart even though I only knew them for a few hours. I am really impressed with the good work the Boys & Girls Club does for our community.
In the future I plan to volunteer again for the next "Boys & Girls Club Nite Out". I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to volunteer for this event and I hope someday I have kids as sweet and wonderful as Patrick and Angel.
