The Power of Twelve

"Nothing can dim the light that shines from within."  
- Maya Angelou

The realization that we had to leave Greenville Saturday morning both saddened and disappointed us as a team. After a week of smiles, service, and learning, none of us were ready to say goodbye to Fire Station 1, Bobby, the Mayor, and everyone else who had so warmly welcomed us to Greenville. The educational component of the trip had exceeded our expectations, in that we were eye-witnesses to Greenville citizens' everyday lives. What we gathered was that our trip had brought a wind of optimism to the city and that we had touched a few lives along the way. Also, our fun experiences

The Greenie Dozen

together, like playing volleyball with the firemen, singing karaoke, and sunbathing at the levee, had brought us closer as a team and as a Volunteer family.

However, a key component of Alternative Break Trips is that one must come back. Knoxville holds a piece of our heart, and it is crucial to take the lessons we learned in Greenville and apply them to our Scruffy City. As a whole, service becomes a necessary step toward Active Citizenship, and while we served in Greenville exclusively for the week, many of our educational experiences can apply to Knoxville's population experiencing poverty and homelessness. From the 'Sign Up to Serve' Calendar one to local Alternative Break Trips, our team realized that there are numerous ways in which we can invest into our city, in order to make it a more equitable and sustainable place. The memories will stay with us forever, but there is always more we can do as citizens of Knoxville, the nation, and the world. Our hope is that we have inspired action and empathy in our participants' hearts and in our own lives, so that the Volunteer spirit can stem from our campus and touch even the farthest corners of the globe.