Gabri-­‐EL  Dawkins  August,  2014  –  June,  2015  

I began my year with several team building games, papers to sign and boxes to move. Then came the first day of roughly 335 days of service at Community Television of Knoxville; where I edited several hours worth of video, recorded another several hours worth of footage, and met many fascinating people. Those roughly 335 days of service also include my time volunteering through the ever-helpful volunteerknoxville.org website with Keep Knoxville Beautiful, the Knoxville Film Festival – where I served various, deliciously flavored moonshine and conversed with many wonderful people from within and without the US – the Farmer’s Market at Market Square, the Children’s Festival of Reading – where I was the lovely assistant to UT chemist, Dr. Al Hazari – and the Restoration House of East Tennessee.

Above all, what impacted me the most, were the hours I spent volunteering at sites I found through the volunteerknoxville.org website and with the Second Harvest Food Bank. The website was such a great resource for great opportunities like landscaping and helping build a new playground at the Restoration House, bartending at the Knoxville Film Festival and assisting Dr. Hazari at the Children’s Festival of Reading; I will definitely be taking my new-found passion for volunteering with me wherever I go, and will encourage others to do the same.