Revolution: DASH Archives - The District Alliance for Safe Housing

Last weekend Revolution: DASH took a trip to the DC Diaper Bank to learn about their work and volunteer! Revolution: DASH is our youth service learning club, founded and run by the younger DASH residents. Every month we take time to learn about and volunteer in our community. In the past we have worked with the local neighborhood association and the Capital Area Food Bank, but this was our first field trip and we were excited. In the car on the way to the warehouse we played trivia and learned some interesting facts, like that in a single month an infant requires 100 diapers, and 1/3 of families struggle to buy sufficient diapers every month. We were able to reflect on why it’s so important that all families have access to diapers.

We then spent our afternoon packaging diapers, eating girl scout cookies and breaking down boxes. The kids had a blast and worked hard, at times even carrying three boxes of diapers at a time! At the end of the day we had packed over 1,400 diapers in two hours!

What made the trip so special is that DASH partners with the DC Diaper Bank to provide our residents with diapers each month. We were even able to organize the diapers we needed to transport to DASH while volunteering! We were glad for an opportunity to learn about issues that effect our community while giving back to such a wonderful organization.

At the end of the day we had some hard earned deep dish pizza and discussed our trip. When asked what their favorite part of the day was, the kids thought first of the pizza, obviously. But they also talked about how great it was to see the real impact of their work as the pile of diapers grew bigger and bigger, about how they enjoyed working outside and inquired as to when we could go back.

A big thanks to the DC Diaper Bank for hosting us! To learn about you can volunteer with the Diaper Bank check out their website: http://www.dcdiaperbank.org/get-involved/events/

Kylie Musolf is a senior at American University studying Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She has worked at DASH as the development intern since January 2014.

It’s hard to pinpoint the first service project I ever completed. I grew up in rural Michigan with plenty of opportunities to do community service, and I was fortunate to grow up in a community that valued my participation. Doing community service opened my world up to unimaginable possibilities and passions and helped me gain some of the skills and experience I needed to move toward them. Service certainly helped bring me to DASH: one of the recurring volunteer projects I did in secondary school was at my local domestic violence shelter.

While I can’t remember my first experience with community service, I can certainly remember my most recent. Last Saturday I showed up at DASH (a little late, as the red line was single tracking) with two wonderful young women of Alpha Phi Omega, the national service fraternity. Little did we know that Revolution: DASH was soon to be born. Five young residents showed up on Saturday morning to clean up their community by picking up litter. We suited up with our warm clothes, sanitary gloves, and trash bags and headed out. We picked up several bags worth of litter such as beverage containers, old newspapers, cigarette butts, and candy wrappers from the sidewalks and street gutters. We took breaks between blocks to play tag and talk about school and sports.

The streets were sparkling clean and we were exhausted! The five young residents, two members of Alpha Phi Omega and I, returned to the community room to eat pizza (generously provided by &pizza) and talk about the environment. We talked about the different kinds of litter we picked up, statistics about trash and litter, and how litter impacts our clean water supply. We also talked about how much water we use daily—I think everyone was surprised to know that we use nearly 350 gallons a day! We discussed how doing something simple like picking up litter impacts the entire world around us in multiple and important ways. From this Revolution: DASH was formed. The founding members determined this awesome name for their community service club, which will meet monthly to do service and talk about social justice.

While we haven’t yet decided on the mission of the club (stay tuned for next month), my goal for the club is to help our young residents: recognize their social efficacy, build and explore their passions, and lead purpose driven lives.

Do you want to get involved in the Revolution? If you ideas for our next project or would like to donate lunch, please contact me at: KMusolf@dashdc.wpengine.com

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Revolution: DASH

Revolution: DASH goes to the Diaper Bank