3rd Friday Halloween Happenings

We made lots of new friends at 3rd Friday. 

The Delmar MiM Club wanted to start participating in the 3rd Friday event to get the word out about youth volunteerism. One of the things MiM prides itself on is the ability to find or create volunteer opportunities that are fun, but also give youth the opportunity to begin developing skills they can use in their everyday lives. 

Organizing is a particularly difficult skill to acquire, because it isn't always easy to find a cause or event to organize around. That said, learning to coordinate your peers and to lead them to act is an important skill the students try and develop. Salisbury's 3rd Friday is an opportunity for the students to accomplish both. Since it is a monthly event, there always is something to coordinate.

As they began to organize this first attempt at participation, the students got word that the event organizers needed a hand executing the kids section of the Halloween celebration. Young people were needed to run the pumpkin smashing booth, the pumping tossing both and the pumpkin painting booth. Rather than sit behind a table talking about how necessary it was to volunteer, the MiM students elected to volunteer instead. Even though there had to be some last-minute changes to their proposed program, they stepped up and got all the work done, freeing up the adult organizers to handle the multitudes that attended the event.

Whether it was because of the pleasant temperatures, the free events, or all the bands and artists, 3rd Friday was a huge success. The street fair has been growing in popularity every month for the last few years and really is beginning to draw the kinds of crowds that need managing.

We had a brand new student doing first time volunteering. Although she was a quiet person by natures, she rand the pumpkin toss event , explaining the rules to the kids and their parents, handing out prizes and generally being gregarious and helpful. One of our Delmar Leaders flitted from station to station, helping her peers and other volunteers who had showed up and needed some direction. We even had a UMES student come by and pitch in as the crowds began to get even larger.

It was a great event and, as always, out MiM members made us proud and made their communities a little bit better.