Why is community service so important?

By Gracie Wilson

What does the importance of community service mean to you? Well to me it means a lot. Community service is volunteers. A couple years ago my grandpa was in an accident. We have an ATV and it was parked right above a hill. Before we knew it, it started rolling down because the emergency brake gave out. Well my grandpa was on his tractor, he tried to stop the ATV from rolling down the hill with his bucket on the front of his tractor. Sadly that did not work because the ATV was stronger than the tractor. Unfortunately my grandpa flipped off his tractor and fractured his cervical spine. We called 911 and many first responder vehicles came and an ambulance. If it wasn’t for those volunteers that day who knows what that would’ve looked like. I am so thankful for community service it is extremely important to me, because of them that day my grandpa is still with us.

According to the four way rotary essay, there are 4 questions we need to answer. The first question is “Is it the truth?” The answer is yes, community service is very important, it saves and benefits many people’s lives. Community service didn’t just help my grandpa that day, it continues to help many other people. For example people who are less fortunate and don’t have the ability to be able to clean their house on their own. There are volunteers who go to people’s houses and help them clean so their home still feels like a home, to me that is very important. 

The second rotary essay question is “Is it fair to all concerned?” The answer is yes. Community service isn’t to make you feel better about yourself or to make money. Community service is a volunteer thing, people who do community service are usually ones that just love to help and always are offering an extra hand. In community service there isn’t any, “Oh you do more things then I do.” People don’t do community service to make money, they do it because it brings them joy and happiness to help others. Community service isn’t a competition. There aren’t many things in life that aren’t a competition anymore in this society, but community service is one that isn’t.

The third rotary essay question is “Will it build good will and better friendships?” The answer again is yes. Community service is so important to many people, including me. People make very strong relationships doing community service whether if  you volunteer at the fire station or help take care of old people, it doesn’t matter you are always building relationships with others. Community service doesn’t just bring helpful hands, it brings so much more. You could go into community service not feeling like this will really benefit you, but you can accomplish so many things.  

The final rotary essay question is “Will it be beneficial to all concerned?” The answer is yes. Have you ever driven past a food drive or a clothing drive? Those people running the food drive or clothing drive are volunteers. They are there because they want to help the less fortunate. They want to make their life a little easier. If we didn’t have community service so many less fortunate people would be struggling ten times more. Community service benefits so many things and people. I am so glad that we have community service, it’s a very valuable and important concept.

I didn’t realize how important community service is until I started writing this essay. I didn’t understand the point of this essay until I got writing and brainstorming it. This essay has made me have a different outlook on community service. I will always be so thankful for community service because if there weren’t volunteers that day that the accident happened with my grandpa, who knows if he would still be with us. Please take a minute and think how less fortunate we would be in many ways if we didn’t have community service.