Kentucky Smoke Free, The First Experience

To be honest, all the member in my group, myself included, have not had any actual, relevant service experience with Kentucky Smoke Free Policy. We were told by Monica that the majority of the service learning would take place in November with their initiative.

UK College of Nursing, where volunteering took place

Frankly speaking, the most interaction I have had with the organization is limited to scanning their documents. When I first went in to volunteer, I was expecting to lend some assistance to some more important tasks at hand, but I was quite disappointed that I was left to do was essentially busy work. Quite literally, I scanned hundreds of sheets of documents and newspapers within the time span of the two hours that I was there. Aside from the fact that I was somewhat annoyed with having to do non-essential work, the scanning itself provided many frustrations. If some of the papers were stapled together and I didn't know, the printer would jam while trying to scan, making me incredibly frustrated at times. The repetitiveness of the work that I had to do did not alleviate matters either. It was incredibly boring to be doing the same motion of taking papers and loading them for two whole hours. While I do realize that the work I was doing benefited the organization with their moving process, it was honestly hard to care about it. I did the work that I was asked of in a diligent manner, but I did not really enjoy a single minute of it.

The piles and piles of documents that were scanned

With that said, I certainly hope that the experience in November will be much better. I want to get into the actual important things, not the minutia. I agree with the organization's ideals and initiatives - I would just like to have the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way. I hope that what is to come will allow me to do just that.

Signature symbol and acronym for the Kentucky Center for Smoke Free Policy

For the past month the Kentucky Center for Smoke free Policy has been in a shuffle. Everyone is buzzing about the upcoming move at the end of this month and beginning of next month. What this new location will mean for the organization, is more space to work, and a new beginning for the mission that they started years ago.
If you were to go to their website you can read about some interesting findings that the teams at the center have been finding. For example, the team [Ellen J. Hahn (principal investigator), Kiyoung Lee (Faculty Associate/Environmental Scientist), Heather Roberston (Program Administrator), and Amanda Bucher (Data Coordinator)] handling the monitoring of air quality found that some "workers and patrons in Greenup County were exposed to indoor air pollution levels approx. 2.3 times the National ambient Air Quality Standard for outdoor air, " (Bucher, Hahn, Lee, & Robertson, 2015). This just shows how people can be working under hazardous conditions without even realizing that their lives are at risk. When looking at this data, keep in mind, that it is legal to smoke out doors, and thusly it is responsible to assume that the levels of toxins outdoors will be high; there is no reason that the toxins found inside of buildings should exceed that of the conjoint outside, its also important to recall that smoking indoors is illegal. So then how is this even possible? These are the questions that the teams investigate over that the center- and this is the fundamental importance of KCSP, not only for the community of Lexington, but to the state as a whole; Kentucky.

Banner that the KCSP used to campaign 2nd hand smoke

Now while people over at KCSP have been busy working on the collection and analysis of data I myself have been helping the great cause. Perhaps not on the same level, but... I have more or less done some good. For two hours I went and scanned and sorted important documentation. The move, as mentioned earlier, has been using quite a bit of man power, something that is hard to have in a place that is constantly bustling with the prospects of a better tomorrow. Time is scarce, needless to say, and every moment counts. This is why, even though it wasn't as glamorous as some other jobs, I feel my time was well spent. I know how helpful an extra pair of hands can be sometimes and I could definitely tell every second I spent helping, was greatly appreciated. The copier did jam, every three or four papers, but I can't complain; I know that while I took over the coping job, someone else was able to go and analyze or collect new information that will probably be beneficial to my health and the health of others in the future.
I am excited to say that in the up coming month, November to some, or Lung Cancer Awareness month to KCSP, I will be having a more hands on experience. We will be tending to tables and booths set up around campus. Here we will passing out pamphlets and brochure on some of the dangers of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd hand smoke. Things that most people won't know about and information that will hopefully change the life or lives of college student(s). Aside from the booth, we also have some interesting assignments to follow up on their social media campaigns. Hopefully I'll get to tweet some interesting facts out about some new discoveries that the teams have been finding.

First KCSP Service Experiences

So far, I have hardly completed any service at my agency, the Kentucky Center for Smoke-Free Policy.  They are currently in the process of moving to a new location which has caused lots of stress and anxiety within the organization and not much focus has been put on promoting smoke-free policy, at least for the time being.  For now, the main focus of KCSP is scanning all their files and moving them to digital copies.  These files mainly include important documents, samples of media used to promote smoke-free policy, etc.  They help to mark their progress throughout the years and prove how successful KCSP has been throughout Kentucky.

Just one of the many newspaper articles proving KCSP’s effectiveness in its community over the years.

Because of this shift in focus, my first service experience was regretfully uneventful.  I spent the entirety of three hours on a Tuesday morning coping stacks on stacks of documents.  Inevitably, almost every stack I would put in the machine to scan would get jammed somewhere along the line and I would have to figure out some way to get the paper out.  Whether there were still staples in the packets or a small article couldn’t make it through all the way or a paper just went through the wrong way, there were issues constantly.  This made a fairly simple process rather frustrating, especially since I felt like my job was somewhat meaningless.  However, after the gratitude I received when leaving I am certain that I was of service to people who genuinely needed my help.  Going forward I know that even the smallest of help can have a large impact.  Once KCSP is moved to their new location, I am certain I will have more opportunities to serve the agency and the community in the way I had initially expected.

An example of the types of social media campaigns my group members and I will help to produce to promote the Kentucky Center for Smoke-Free Policy.

In the upcoming month, I am expecting to have many more service opportunities than were presented in October.  My group’s service coordinator has already informed us about some tabling events we will have the opportunity to be a part of throughout November.  Since November is National COPD Awareness month my group members and I will be at tables around campus passing out information about anti-smoking policies and the dangers of smoking.  Additionally, we will be creating social media campaigns to promote smoke-free policy all over Kentucky.  Between the two of these opportunities, I believe November will prove to be an extremely busy month and I will feel much more satisfaction about the work I did with my service agency.

Service Doesn't Mean Becoming a Superhero

The real smoke-free superheroes!

We're halfway through the semester, and I haven't really had much to do with my service learning organization. There just hasn’t been much going on in the smoke-free scene. What little I have done, hasn’t had anything to do with Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy’s mission of promoting a smoke-free tomorrow. Most of our service will be completed next month. November is national lung cancer awareness month and the third Thursday is designated as the Great American Smokeout.  Starting soon the organization will need us to table and hand out pamphlets on campus in between class and create social media campaigns for their facebook and twitter handles. So it was with this assurance of future helpfulness that I went into my service this past month.

For two hours I went to the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy office and scanned papers. They are trying to update the file system from paper to digital, and that’s a lot of work! It’s a lot of boring work- standing at the massive, 20-in-1, industrial Xerox machines feeding papers through, pausing of course every five or so pages to unjam the machine when a document inevitably didn’t feed correctly. It was mindless and tedious and more than a little frustrating at times. Honestly, it didn’t feel like the real, life-changing service I had hoped for when beginning this endeavor.  But when my scheduled time was finished and I came to get my hours sheet signed by my supervisor, everyone was so grateful. I felt like Clark Kent, unnoticed and rather superfluous, but they thanked me like I had just saved the day, Superman style. They thanked me for saving them hours of work and hassle. In my two hours I made their lives at least a little easier. And that’s the point, isn’t it?

my new nemesis 

Sometimes, the most helpful things are the simplest things. Serving my service learning organization sometimes means filing papers and scanning documents. Service can’t always be leading a single-handed crusade against the evils of the world. It can’t always be great and exciting and important-sounding. Honestly, my standing back and doing the boring work to allow the experts to work on plans for the coming month, was likely the best thing I could do. Learning to serve means learning that you don’t always get to wear the cape- the most helpful tasks are the mundane, the boring, the unheroic. And completing these tasks joyfully is the best thing that I can do for the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy.