YLK CLASS #31 SERVICE PROJECT

The Youth Leadership Kearney Class #31 took on their community engagement project this past July, 2025, as

part of their graduation requirement for the program. This project is a part of their curriculum and was introduced to the class in their February session. The brainstorming started out slow, with various options and drastically different ones too. One common theme these ideas did share was providing for an area in healthcare. Over the course of three sessions, the class was still quite divided regarding what community engagement activity they wanted to do. As time was starting to run out, a committee within the class decided to do a carwash for baby products that will be donated to the Collage Center. 

The Collage Center is a non-profit organization that provides free medical services regarding sexual health and pregnancy support such as: STD testing and treatment, pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, providing abortion information, and confidential support. With their goal in mind, a date was selected in July. Members signed up for times through a Google Form, to help out for part of the time or the entirety of the project. Absent members of the class contributed to the project by communicating with management at the Grand Central Apple Market-where the carwash was held-and by making promotional materials such as flyers and social media posts. On the day of, each present member brought bottles of soap and other materials to assist in the carwash. Some members even held out signs on the street! Baby products and donations were taken as payment and overall it was a really successful event. The class received so many donations that the Collage Center ran out of storage for the products!

Reflecting back on the project here are some things the members have shared. In a poll ranking the event from 1 to 5, 1 being not impactful and 5 being very impactful, the class had a majority of 50% ranking the event as impactful (4). A quarter of the class ranked the event as a very impactful event (5), and the rest consistently ranked it a (3). Members also shared that they believe they could have planned the event better by communicating more and organizing the event earlier rather than last minute by a few of the members. The class enjoyed getting to hang out with one another and seeing the genuine impact that they were making. There were so many amazingly kind people and generous donations. This event could not have happened without the generous Kearney community. This concludes YLK Class #31’s project, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” - Mahatma Ghandi