Philadelphia Service Trip

(6) Describe one act of servant leadership that has been witnessed in Philadelphia:
This empty warehouse room was once filled to the top with bags of toys. The Salvation Army stores these donations throughout the year and will distribute them come Christmas. The toys that filled the warehouse needed to be sorted into separate age groups and then boxed together accordingly. The warehouse the Salvation Army uses was given to them by donation and does not have any air conditioning. The toys must be sorted before Thanksgiving so that Salvation Army knows what all is available to give out children who otherwise would not receive a Christmas present. As the summer goes on, the warehouse becomes too hot to work in for long periods of time. While toys are not as necessary as a short term service such as food and clothing, toys are utilized to make a longterm difference in a child’s life. While at the Salvation Army we were led by Major Susan. Major Susan is one of the pastors with the Salvation Army and was the woman who was solely in charge of making sure the toys were sorted. Without the help of volunteers, it would have likely taken Major Susan all summer to complete one task. One task that twenty were able to complete within a few hours. There is a strong hierarchy within the Salvation Army, Major Susan being a leader in many aspects. She could have chosen to show us what to do by pointing and giving directions, but rather she got down and dirty with us as we boxed and sorted hundreds of toys. Major Susan was a servant leader in many ways that day with the Salvation Army. There were many times she got lost in the bustle of the sort because she worked alongside her followers, doing the same work, and not standing out. Working within her followers Major Susan was able to set a great example of servant leadership.Read more

(7) Kouzes and Posner suggest exemplary leaders should “treat every job as an adventure.” What have you learned about how to do this on this trip?:
By the third day of the trip, by the third day of service work, everyone on the Leadership team was exhausted. We had traveled far, worked hard and experienced a lot of Philadelphia in a short amount of time. Yet, we had a whole new story, a new organization to discover and work on. Going into the day we were all too tired to move, however, once we began to hear Wes discussing the issues that were occurring in his neighborhood we were all intrigued. It is the adventure of being able to do something new, help someone else, and the prospect of learning something that had us all on edge, even after two full days of service work. If you treat a job as an adventure, then will not seem like such hard work. If you enjoy what it is that you are doing and if you are passionate about whatever issue it is that you are helping with, that job will seem less like work and more like an adventure. The excitement of the day and of the trip we were on was reason enough for us all to feel adventurous. The prospect of working with Front Step and being able to try new food in a new neighborhood, being able to meet new people of Philadelphia was exciting and new. If you treat all jobs like you would if you were going into an adventure you will look find the new and surprising things in all situations. It was a new adventure every day we spent in Philadelphia whether that was doing service work or touring a new museum.Read more