CNH CKI's The Sunburst Volume 55, Issue 3 Volume 52, Issue #1 | Seite 20

20

AUGUST 2012

district events

Big Service
in the Big Easy
Jonathan Cao-Nguyen
UC San Diego

Big Service in the Big Easy! The 2012 Circle
K International Large Scale Service Project is one
event that I will never forget. Located in the diverse
and music-filled city of New Orleans, Louisiana, the
Large Scale Service Project, or LSSP, is a four-day
event filled with fellowship activities and service
projects that gave back to our host convention city.
Prior to flying hundreds of miles to this location, attendees took a quick survey on what type
of projects they were interested in. Whether you
were crafty or handy with tools, there were projects that satisfied everyone’s desires. Remember
that everyone had a different agenda at LSSP as everyone had different projects that catered to their
interests, so this was my service-filled day.
This was my first International event and I didn’t
know what to expect. When I arrived at the airport,
I was overwhelmed with excitement from being
in such a historic city, filled with jazzin’ music and
delicious food! I was extremely motivated to serve
and I couldn’t control my energy on giving back to
the host city. On the very first day, there was an
in-house service project where we helped make
bookmarks to donate to Better World Books, one
of our International Service Partners. I was notorious at the event for taking so many bookmarks and
hogging them all to myself. Like I said, I was very
excited for the service that I was doing so I wasn’t
thinking clearly!
The following day, we took school buses to numerous locations throughout the city. One bus
went to a project inside a local children’s hospital,

“

I was extremely motivated to
serve and I couldn’t control
my energy on giving back to
the host city. . . .

one bus went a warehouse renovation center, and
much more. My bus went to the Animal Shelter of
New Orleans, and our project was to clean out the
animal shelter while interacting with the animals
that stayed at this shelter. The project was amazing, up until I found out that I was allergic to cats
and dogs, and then my day went downhill. It’s okay
though. I powered through my constant sneezing
and watery eyes to finish the job, and I was proud
of that.
Day 3 was a giant Habitat for Humanity project.
Because of so many Circle K volunteers, we had six
Habitat sites being built simultaneously in the city
of New Orleans. For my location, what was heartwarming about the project was that the person
who was going to receive this house was serving
alongside all of us. We were all able to talk to him
and get to know his story. His actions were humbling as he continues thanking us all day long for
our hard work and generosity. The last day was
also an in-house service project where we made
ELIMINATE corsages and bouquets for the Leadership Luncheon during ICON.
LSSP was a wonderful experience. The one thing
that I will always remember from this event is the
weather. Every single day, it was over 100 degrees
and 90% humidity. If you think serving on a hot day
in CNH is tough, try doing it in this kind of weather!
You will be sweating bullets non-stop!
But overall, I am truly honored to have experienced this event. I met new friends while serving
at projects that I’ve never helped at before. I highly recommend that you attend any of the future
Large Scale Service Projects that Circle K International hosts. I hope to attend next year’s LSSP in
Vancouver, Canada because no matter where I go,
if there is service to be done, I am so there!