Mary Ahmed

Volunteer Outreach Club members ringing bells for Salvation Army

Around the holiday season, the idea of giving back stands strong among the Mounds View community. The Volunteer Outreach Club (VO Club) at Mounds View exemplifies these ideas, providing students with opportunities to give back to their community and gain volunteer hours. The club typically meets after school on Thursdays in Mary Carney’s room, where they focus on doing hands-on activities and connecting students with different organizations. The club’s executive board consists of the president, senior Mary Ahmed, co-vice presidents senior Elilta Gaim and junior Joseph McVean and junior Sean Oh, the secretary. 

Students may know the club as “Volunteer Service Club,” but this year the executive board decided to change its name. “[We wanted to] give it a new name that kind of catches people’s eyes because we just felt like the Volunteer Service Club was such a mouthful,” said Ahmed. Along with the name change, club presidents have upped their activity on Instagram to promote the meetings and volunteer opportunities and created a positive environment to encourage all students to join. “The club is a joyful community. Everyone in the club are wonderful people. I personally like the club because of the idea of helping our community and other communities as well,” said junior Alyssa Gatumbo. 

On Dec. 5, members worked together after school to make stocking stuffers for less fortunate children and families in the area. They partnered with Solid Ground, an organization that helps build families in poverty. “[We] put a lot of goodies in [the stocking stuffers], fun stuff for toddlers, young kids, and then we [sent] it off to the organization, and they [gave] it to each family,” said Ahmed. The leaders bought different goodies, including stuffed animals, gloves, toy trucks and other necessities, for five different kids ages one to 14 years old.

Most recently on Dec. 12, the club continued to spread holiday cheer by ringing bells with the Salvation Army. Bell ringing helps raise money for the Salvation Army, a charity organization that helps families in need. They also have plans for more events in the future. “Plans for the club is to offer volunteering experience to students of Mounds View, so that they don’t feel like it’s impossible to make a difference in their communities,” said Ahmed. Additionally, the club’s Instagram page (@mvvolunteeroutreachclub) includes a monthly calendar, updating members on future meetings and events. 

Although the Volunteer Outreach Club started meeting only a few weeks ago, they encourage students to try to attend their meetings. “This will be a club where you belong and everyone belongs here at VO Club,” said Gaim. Regardless of the number of members, the club strives to make a difference in the community. “We just like to really give to the world and take that stance because you don’t have to be this huge organization, you could just be a small club at school, doing these really cool things,” said Ahmed.