Maps, knowledge, and warmth

This Raider Service Break took place at Grand Canyon national park, where we worked with the volunteer coordinators in the park Todd, and Rachel. We were assigned to their interpretation department where we helped people in different places of the park find out information that they may need, such as locations to go or what they could do in the park. Even though some people may consider this job either insignificant or unimportant, it is an essential part for the betterment of the experience for visitors. When in average visitors must wait 20 to 30 minutes at the visitor center at peak times just to ask a simple question, the addition of aid at different points in the park alleviated the amount of people that required to go to the visitor center. In the few days that we were there we helped over 7000 people.

This were 7000 people that did not have to go wait anymore, or maybe that just had small questions that needed answers that we helped in the few days that we were there.

While in this trip there were numerous amounts of experiences that stand out to me, and that I hope that I remember them for years to come. One of them is when a small child came up to me exited and asked me if I was a park ranger, and that if he could cross me off his Junior Ranger book. This was a good experience since I think I made this kid’s day and that makes me excited. Another great experienced that I had was, helping a couple design their trip at the Grand Canyon while they were there. They approached me with a simple question, but after answering their question I asked if they needed more help with other things. After a 10-minute conversation, we came up with a whole new idea full of activities and hikes in the two days that they were going to be there. I wonder what they would have done instead if we weren't there to answer their questions. The couple had completely different plans that could have not worked out due to the weather and the time of the day that they got to the park. Having such a big impact on people's day, or maybe their trip as a whole is a little challenging at first because I didn’t want to give them the wrong information when it came to doing things in their day. The more I did it throughout the days made it easier since I had already done it. Also, because every day I learned more and was prepared for even more questions than the day before. Another action by one of the visitors that gave me that extra boost of confidence that I needed was when after a long day of helping people I would see someone that I helped out earlier in the day, that maybe needed help planning their day, and they came up to me and thanked me for the great recommendations and were very thankful. This occurred a handful of times while we were there and every one of them was just as good as the last, because every interaction with the visitors may have being similar to the last one, but they were all still unique in their own regard. I had a group that I remember perfectly of a dad and mom with 2 daughters, which only had one question, and it was to know where the visitor center was located. I informed the couple the right direction but then offered my knowledge so they could avoid the long line in the visitor center, and the dad’s response was “so you have everything that the visitor center has, right? Maps, knowledge, and warmth?” My response was saying that I indeed had the maps, knowledge, and if he needed some warmth, we could all have a group hug. I later saw that group leaving to their car and they saw me and wished me a great trip back home and to be careful on my return. Experiences like these are important for both me as a volunteer because it made me want to keep volunteering, and for them hopefully is something they can keep in the back of their mind as a good experience while they were at the canyon.

Apart from the service part of the trip, I had a wonderful time with the people that came in our trip, making many new friends all throughout the trip. Every night that we spent together we just became more open and closer to each other. We had plenty of conversations that let us come closer as a group, and this was also thanks to the Reflections that we had at the end of every day of the trip. This Reflections let us speak freely about our feelings and our opinion in the trip. Towards the end of the trip I personally ended up cooking breakfast for a lot of the members of the trip and it was something that I did not expect to be doing for people that I considered strangers not 3 weeks ago. All of the people that came in this trip ended up having a great impact in my trip, as well as having an impact on me personally. Between small game rivalries with Scott, to completely losing a game of exploding kittens against Willow, to teaching everyone how to play weird games like Bunny whoop! And Kings Corners. I just hope that I had as much of an impact on everyone else's trip, as they had on my trip.

One of the most important parts of this trip was not just the service we did at the Grand Canyon, is what we did after our trip. This is important because the trip, is in part, design to create active member of our communities. With what we have learned in our service break, we have to come back to campus and make an impact here or in the Lubbock community. For me the trip has done that for me, I am currently, as well with a couple of other members from the trip, trying to create a student organization for the Raider Service Break so we can help the reach of this organization. I feel so grateful of having had the opportunity to go in this trip, not only because of how it changed the way I looked at a lot of different things, but also because for me it may have potentially given me a new career path. I want to help other students in campus realize that this is an opportunity that they have available in campus, and to give it a try because they could also have a realization like the one that I had while in the trip.

-Daniel Rodas