Holly Bearden, a member from Benton, Mo., never cared for fundraisers as a kid. They just weren’t her thing. Then she got involved in a Matching Fund project through her Modern Woodmen youth service club. She and fellow club members raised money to benefit a woman who had cancer.
“I enjoyed that,” she remembers. “It felt like I was really doing something.”
Now in her early 20s, that’s what Holly enjoyed most about her club experience. “When you’re young, you don’t feel like you make much of a difference for anybody,” she says. “But being in the club, you feel like you do. In doing things for other people, I feel like I actually made a difference in my youth.”
More than 700 Modern Woodmen clubs nationwide hold fun and educational monthly activities and plan volunteer projects that benefit the community. In 2005 alone, club members contributed over 337,000 hours of volunteer service to help schools, organizations and individuals in need.
Youth service clubs plant the seeds of service in young people. Club members discover the benefit of helping others and carry those values with them to become active adults in their communities.
Helping others As a young adult, Holly still makes a difference. When she graduated from high school, she started her own club to give more kids in her area the opportunities she enjoyed. She’s also the secretary of two Modern Woodmen camps for adults, and she helps out with a community betterment group in a nearby town. She likes to give her time to other people. Volunteering is part of who she is.
Former club member Sheryl Poling, Augusta, W.Va., also continues to serve her community. Sheryl was a club member from infancy through her teen years. When she turned 20, her former club leader passed away. “A lot of the kids I grew up with in the club were starting to have kids of their own,” she says. “They wanted to keep the club active, but they didn’t want to lead it.”
So Sheryl stepped in. Over 20 years later, she now leads two clubs and is the secretary of her local Modern Woodmen camp. She also helps out with her son’s and daughter’s school activities, including the band boosters and the FFA.
“The biggest thing I gained from my club experience was a belief in helping others,” she says. Now she’s happy to share that belief with her children and other members of her community.
Earning rewards Today, Sheryl’s club members gain additional rewards from club participation. All the local high school students are required to take a semester-long course on serving others. If Sheryl writes a statement reporting her club members’ volunteer hours, they are excused from the course.
Several of Sheryl’s longtime club members now attend college. One member is seeking her doctorate in music. “Every year since she’s been out of high school, I’ve been asked to write something for the college about how active she was and the hours of service she put in,” says Sheryl. “She’s actually gotten one or two college credits based on what she did in the club. Her sister graduated this year, and I’m starting to do that for her too.”
Clubs also provide intangible rewards, like high self-esteem, leadership skills, confidence and courage. The first time Holly’s club visited a nursing home she cried. “It scared me so badly,” she says. “But as a club member, I went there a lot. That made me more familiar with older people. I got over that fear.” Now she loves visiting nursing homes and is perfectly positioned to help her members overcome their fear.
Sowing seeds for the future Modern Woodmen clubs serve members and their families by supporting the character development of young people and by improving communities. Clubs plant seeds of service in kids. Those seeds grow along with young members to cultivate responsible, service-minded adults.
All children who are members of Modern Woodmen or are part of a Modern Woodmen member family are eligible to join a youth club in their community. If there isn’t a club in your area, work with your representative to get one started. You could even be the leader.
“It’s a great opportunity for kids to do something for other people,” says Holly. “You feel good about yourself when you do volunteer work. You keep out of trouble. You become more aware. And people absolutely love it when you do things for them.”
As a kid growing up in a Modern Woodmen youth club, Holly felt she made a difference. As an adult, she knows she continues to make a difference. That difference will live on into the future through the many seeds of service she now helps sow.