#NewYearNewMe

October 13, 2017

First Blog

     My name is Tori Standefer. This blog is for a school project my friend Ally and I are working on. I will update this blog almost every Friday. Our goal is to inspire others to do work in their community, as well as for us to make a difference in our own community. This type of project interested us, because we both like to serve others, and the feeling we get after. We want to do this so others can learn how to spend their free time doing something worthwhile and good for the society. So far, we have volunteered at the DQ Fun Run, which is a 5k held near us. We helped them set up, handed out waters, and told people where to run. Another place we volunteered at was the Tree House Wildlife Center. We pulled weeds and took care of some of their landscaping, as well as look around at some of the cool animals they had! We also have an Instagram account, @helpsouthernil, where we post pictures of us doing work. If you ever have any pictures of you volunteering, please send them in to be shown on our site! Challenges we may face, is the we are constantly doing basketball, but we will try our best to spend all of our free time doing these types of things! My partner and I are very excited to take part in this, because we want to learn how to make our town and surrounding cities better places to live in!

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October 27, 2017

Second Blog

     Hello, readers! Ally and I have been very busy these past few weeks with basketball season shortly approaching, so we haven't done any new volunteer work yet. However, we plan on going around our town and picking up trash tomorrow! Today, we plan on posting our pictures from our volunteering so far. We decided to make this part of our project strictly environmental work, and helping southern Illinois  stay clean. We were excited about this, because we get to see visual change. Our next set of volunteer work will be focused on the holidays! We will be finding flyers, posts, etc. about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years opportunities to volunteer. We have already found a few, but we plan on doing as much as we can! Also, remember to turn in pictures of you volunteering, and you will be posted on our site. Thank you!

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November 3, 2017

Third Blog

    Hey again, everyone! Ally and I recently picked up trash this past Friday at a few places. We went to the Bethalto Arboretum, Heartland Meadows, and along Prairie Street. It was very cold and windy, but we dressed warm.This project took roughly two hours to do. We liked this project, because we got to help around our community and make it look prettier. Our next project will be Holiday related work. We want to help many families get through the holidays and be able to feed and give gifts to their kids. We are planning on doing toy drives, food drives, clothing drives, etc. Most of our volunteer work will be done through my church, Emmanuel Free Methodist. As we are excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas ourselves, we are excited to bring the same things to other people. We made a few new posts on our Instagram @helpsouthernil, check them out and turn in pictures of you volunteering to be featured! 

November 10, 2017

Fourth Blog

    Hello readers! We both wanted to thank you if you have stayed up to date with our website, and have read this far! Ally and I have officially started getting really into basketball mode with our school team, so we haven’t had much time, considering we have practice everyday until 6pm. We plan on having Sundays be our volunteering days. We want to help with the Toys for Tots drive at Emmanuel Free Methodist. Soon after we plan on doing clothing, food, drives, etc.. We are excited for this project, because it gets us into the Christmas spirit! Even though it isn’t Thanksgiving we are so excited to be giving Christmas gifts to other children who may not get the opportunity to get them without us! Please check out our Instagram posts @helpsouthernil, and send in pictures of you volunteering to be featured! Check our website to see pictures, more information, ideas, and news going on with our project! 

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December 1, 2017

  Fifth Blog

    Happy December everyone! It is officially Christmas season, and this is the part of our project Allyson and I are most excited about! We both love this holiday, and the fact we get to help others enjoy it when they usually wouldn’t be able to is so exciting. We planned to go to my church this past Sunday, but Ally had to go somewhere else because it was her birthday. So, we most definitely will be going this Sunday. We will be helping with going to buy toys to give, helping sort toys for certain ages and genders, shipping them out, and helping more people donate other new toys. We also have another goal, which is to reach out to 150 people about our whole entire project by December 15th. So, if you haven’t already please go follow, or at least check out @helpsouthernil on Instagram. Tomorrow night Ally and I are helping hand out hot chocolate and helping kids get to meet Santa at the Bethalto Christmas Walk. We are excited to be giving people a better Christmas this year! We are both very thankful for our readers and we hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! 

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January 12, 2018

Sixth Blog

   Happy New Year! Since the last time we wrote, we have volunteered at the Bethalto Christmas Walk. We got to help kids onto a train and help them off, hand out hot chocolate, and help kids take pictures with Santa. As of now, we are behind on our goal of have volunteering at 5 places by now. We have only gone to four. We are on track however with reaching 150 people per time we post. Our New Years resolution is to keep up on track, and become more involved than before. We haven't been treating this project like a priority as we should, but we have had many conflicts as well. We have basketball, as we have mentioned many times before that keeps us very busy. Also, our New Year resolution would be to actually receive pictures of people volunteering so we know we have inspired them as well. This project is very exciting for us, and I'm so glad we get to begin the New Year with an even better mindset!  

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January 26, 2018

Seventh Blog

    Hi Readers! As time has passed since our last blog, we gave a small speech to our class. We did not volunteer, because we're waiting for the weather to get a bit nicer, as that time is closely approaching. Our speech was about how to get involved into our project. We also need you guys to help us as well! Use our hashtag #helpsouthernil on pictures of you volunteering on any social media. By doing this you show us that we are making a difference and inspiring others! It would mean so much to us if we even knew we changed the mindset of one person! Even if you aren't volunteering in the picture, please help us spread the word! We will also give a shout out of you doing either one of those things. Thank you so much either way for being here and being updated on our project. Don't forget to help us out whenever you can. Thanks!

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February 2, 2018

Eighth Blog

    Hello again everyone! It has been just a week since I last wrote, and my partner and I are approaching post season in basketball. We planned on volunteering this past weekend, but basketball got in the way of that. We really hope to do something this weekend, but if not we know we will be able to go to lots of places in a few weeks. Sorry to tell you we have no updates, but please stay up to date with us as there will be soon! Thank you for being patient and understanding to with schedules! Don't forget follow @helpsouthernil on Instagram and use the hashtag #helpsouthernil on pictures of you volunteering or at all! We hope to see you guys becoming inspired from Ally and I. THANK YOU!

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March 2, 2018

Ninth Blog

    Hi readers! Ally and I are getting ready for our volunteering plans for this spring. We didn't have much done this winter due to basketball, weather, and just busy schedules. We both have started our spring sports, but time will still be freed up. As the weather gets warmer, we grow more motivated to get outside. This weekend, we plan to go to the Great River Road area and pick up trash. We also plan to go to the cross and on the trail pick up trash. We are so excited to finally be getting outside again and accomplishing our goals. We haven't been where we wanted to be, but we promise to make up for it. We appreciate you guys, use the #helpsoutheril to help us get the word out and follow us. Again, thank you!!

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March 19, 2018

Tenth Blog

    Hey everyone, since the last time we wrote to you we visited the Great River Road and the cross. We picked up trash and had lots of fun together enjoying the warmer weather. We were outside for about an hour. In a month from today we will be presenting our final projects. We are nervous and excited. We are just a tad behind, but we are going to work hard to get ahead. We hope to inspire others and to make an overall difference. We thank you readers for your support throughout this year! We were both logged out of our Instagram, but there are still pictures of our past activities on there. Check it out, keep using our hashtag, and keep spreading the word. We are so thankful, thank you!