I’m a current sophomore in hs and for a while now I’ve been formulating ideas for a club that I am interested in forming. I have been volunteering at a nursing home since freshman year and over the past year, I have gotten very close with some of the residents. With one particular resident who is about 80 something years old, I got to know them very well and we shared many stories. Recently, as I began to visit more, I became aware that they were depressed and after asking about their family I learned that they had literally nobody. This person is a wonderful person no doubt. They are always making jokes and sharing stories but I recently learned that they’re actually broken on the inside and cover it up. They told me that its not just them but a lot of the other people at the nursing home. I spent the rest of the week trying to think of a way to make them feel better so I decided to make them a card and when I gave it to them you can literally see the persons face light up. They thanked me and after that I had this feeling that I can’t explain in words but I was very happy to see them that way. So thats where I got the entire idea from. I want to make some sort of art club to continue to making things for people with the purpose of letting them know that someone cares.
So I am thinking of starting the club at my local library. I already volunteer there and I am good friends with the director so I am sure she will be ok with me starting it. I want to start the club in the summer of june but before then I want to formulate some ideas. So far the whole idea is that we will have meetings (probably monthly) to discuss and create art for other nursing homes, hospitals, or veterans. I am thinking of having art competitions and fundraisers where we can maybe sell our art (if its good lmao) I also want to provide the members with volunteer opportunities where we can go to places like nursing homes to teach and help seniors make things like origami or other creative things. What do you guys think? I love art and helping others so I think this is a really great way to combine the two and also demonstrate my leadership. But before you guys think I’m doing this for college or resumes I just want to be clear that I’m not. I’m open to suggestions and could really use some advice. Thanks for reading through this btw!
below is a list of questions and stuff I need some suggestions on:
-What other places can we can volunteer?
-ideas for fundraisers
-Are there any art competitions we can participate in?
-Ideas for meetings
-Is it too late to start??
-should I recruit more people to help me start the club? (I already have one person in mind who I know will be willing to help)
Have you spoken with activities at the nursing home? You could see if you can do a club with both students and residents with time for art (students only or both) and time to talk a bit.
I think you should consider having your club concentrate interacting with people in the the nursing home.
Creating art and selling it won’t make them feel better.
But sitting down and making art together and chatting will have a better chance.
I think that having other students teaching/showing how to do arts and crafts will give them a framework to interact with the residents.
Thanks for replying I really appreciate the advice. As many of you guys said I think I will have it focus on interacting with people sort of like a volunteer organization but another thing I was thinking we could do is sell art to raise money for something (art for a cause)
These are great ideas! Thank you! I think having them being part of the meeting is a great way to also get them involved since thats the main focus. Do you think they would like arts though? I want to make sure this is something they would actually like.
Also I’m definitely going to tell my friend at the nursing home about that website storycorps .Its absolutely perfect and I’m sure it would make them happy. The person told me they would love to have something written about their life story so thank you! @bopper