Latin Film Festival -Service

I recently worked volunteered at the Latin Film Festival at the Harn Museum of Art. Being a part of Spanish Club at my school, I found this an exciting opportunity to connect with my Hispanic culture. This is an annual event that is put on at the museum for the Hispanic community. A group of students from my school, including myself, went over right after school to help set up before the event began. Each of us were broken up into pairs and those pairs were each assigned to different tasks. the task of my partner and I was to begin assisting in taking the food into the kitchen as it arrived from all the different restaurants around town. Once we got them into the kitchen it was our job to organize how the food would be presented and to make sure that each restaurant was represented equally. We separated the restaurants and prepared for when the other volunteers would come to the kitchen needing to restock the tables with food.
I enjoyed this job since we got to see all the different types of food that were brought and we even got to try some! While we were in the kitchen we got to know some of the college students that were also volunteering. They talked to us about how their experience of college was so far and one of them had grew up in a town where there was another IB high school. Once the event began, we changed into our nice clothes and began to prepare for the orders of food to come in.
There was a high demand of food throughout the event but because of that, the food ran out quickly. After the tables were set, we had an opportunity to see the traditional dancers that were performing and participate in the festivities. I got to talk to some of the influential people of the Hispanic community in Gainesville and they were all very interesting people. As the event closed we cleaned the kitchen and cleared out all the tables to allow more room for the dancing. Listening to the different styles of music and seeing the traditional dances versus the more modern once was enjoyable. It made me feel proud of being Hispanic and opened my eyes to the vast community of Hispanics that lived right in my hometown.

Spanish/Children Beyond Our Borders -Creative

This past weekend Spanish Club and Children Beyond Our Borders Club(CBOB) did a joint party in which our goal was to raise money for the children in Colombia while celebrating Colombian culture. We spent almost two weeks planning this event. In our first meeting we discussed what date would be best to have the party. Lots of factors effected this: if the club officers would be available that day, if there was any big social event that day which could interfere and if our chosen venue would be available. We finally decided that September 21st 2013 which was a Saturday. Although that was the same day as the college football game, it was our only open spot to have a party in the month of September. On the 13th I contacted my neighborhood association inquiring if my neighborhood clubhouse would be available to be used all day for the party. On the 16th I talked with the  Spanish Club president and on the 17th I talked to the CBOB president and we talked about what each officer needs to bring regarding food and utensils. The next day I contacted another member of Spanish club and we organized how we would get a sound system to the party so that we would be able to play Colombian music.  We had different people bring in plates that the guests could eat.
The day of the party we got to the clubhouse early and set up the tables for the food and the music system. Since it was a combined party between the two clubs, we decided with the officers of CBOB that to raise money for the children in Colombia we would have every one of the guests bring $3 with them so that they can eat. Once everyone began arriving we realized that  having it the same day as the Florida football game might have been problematic since some people had to arrive late. I enjoyed it a lot since we got play music and dance. The party was a great opportunity for all of us to experience more Hispanic culture in a comfortable and fun environment while raising money for the children in Colombia.