VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT

Katie Aston - interviewed and written by Kristina Cummins

  She’s a campaign manager, assistant chef, costume designer, art teacher, game maker and coach. Katie Aston is all of these things as a volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club.

“I do whatever is needed,” Aston said. “I help kids read or do their homework. I create games to keep them occupied. I help them bake when they have an Iron Chef competition. We color pictures to send to sick kids in the hospital. We paint with watercolors and create Lion King-themed masks.”

 Aston got involved with the Boys and Girls Club back in high school because she felt like her life was too self-centered and she wanted to do something for someone else. Although Aston comes to the Boys and Girls Club to serve, she said she is served while tthere.

 “There is no greater stress relief than pretending to be saving the world as super Batman, coloring between the lines, discussing your crush on Justin Bieber and building entire worlds out of Legos,” she said.

Last week, Aston said, she learned a lesson in gratitude from one of the girls at the Boys and Girls Club.

  “She was telling me about her plans for Thanksgiving,” Aston said. “She mentioned she would get dinner at her dad's house one day and at her mom's house another day because they were divorced. I told her she was a lucky girl for getting two Thanksgiving dinners, but then she looked at me and said, ‘No, you are the lucky girl 'cause your whole family is still together.’ I tried to offer comfort the best I could. But she is the one who found the silver lining: ‘At least I get double the presents for Christmas!’”

Aston said this little girl showed her how ungrateful she was for the many blessings in her life and taught her to not take her family for granted. Volunteers may go into the Boys and Girls Club with the attitude that they are the ones helping, but they will be the ones helped, Aston said.

 “These kids are full of all kinds of simple honesty and wisdom,” she said. “They offer a much needed perspective adjustment. You will learn how to give and receive tough love, be reminded of simpler days, feel grateful for the things you have and make new best friends.”                                                                                                                                                                                            

 Volunteering all depends on the volunteers’ attitude and what they are willing to put into their volunteering, Aston said.

 “If you are passive and don't put your heart into it, the Boys and Girls Club will just be another checked box on a to-do list each week, and a bullet point on your resume that didn't really even make you a better person,” Aston said. “If you put yourself out there, remember kids' names and their interests, really listen to them and show that you care, become something constant each week that they can depend on, then you will help shape futures, including your own. It will be the highlight of your week if you make it that way.”