From February 19th to February 22nd I served as a North Carolina Governor's Page. We went around to different departments in the state government and learned about all of them. I gained so much knowledge about the inter-workings of the NC government. I expanded my love for government and recommend the program to anyone that asks about it!

The planning process for my Service Project has been a long one that involves lots of communications. I have communicated with the Head of Communications at a local non-profit, Hope Mission, my school's principal, two assistant principals, media coordinator, three teachers, the owner of the local Chick-Fil-A, and possible volunteers. I have decided to do a car wash to raise money for Hope Mission. They are a local non-profit in my community that works hard to make where I live a better place. I contacted them and they said the best way to help them out is by raising money. After discussing ideas of just raising money, doing a bake sale, or a car wash, I decided a car wash. I spoke to the media coordinator and principals at my school to see about locations for holding the car wash. We decided Chick-Fil-A, so I contacted the owner. He says CFA is no longer able to hold car washes due to the liability. I focused my attention back to West Carteret High School and the school leaders said I am able to hold it at West. The conditions are that all volunteers have to be dressed school appropriate and a staff member has to be present. I spoke to three teachers about supervising and Mr. Cory Noe said he would be able to. We set the date and time for Saturday, May 18th, from 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM. West Carteret has water faucets outside that I am allowed to use and I will be providing hoses, sponges, buckets, soap, and towels. I have my budget set at $300, as I already have hoses and towels. I will use my own money that I have earned by working at a local restaurant, Amos Mosquito's, to pay for the supplies. On Wednesday, May 15th I will be hanging up fliers to advertise for the car wash. On Thursday, May 16th I will go shopping for all of the supplies and make posters. The posters will be for volunteers to hold in the road when the car wash is happening to attract volunteers. I have talked to at least 25 people that attend my school to see if they would like to help volunteer. I decided that I need at least 15 people to make this possible, and I currently have 16! Everyone will be present for the entirety of the car wash. On Saturday, May 18th, I will arrive at West Carteret at 10:00 AM to get everything set up. I will have the volunteers arrive at 10:15 so I can explain their stations. The car wash will open at 10:30. While the car wash is happening, I will rotate the people washing cars and holding the posters every 30 minutes. At 2:30 PM, we will stop taking new cars and begin to pack everything up. I will be in charge of collecting money from cars and making sure it is safe throughout the day. The only safety concern is the liability of having the car wash at West Carteret. I have already addressed this issue, as I will have a West Carteret staff member present.

I have created fliers to advertise the car wash. It incudes the date, time, location, price, and the purpose. It clearly conveys that all of the proceeds go to Hope Mission! They were hung throughout West Carteret and the community. I also posted the fliers on Facebook and Instagram.

On the day of the event, I went shopping for Gatorade and water for all of the volunteers, as well as ice to keep them cold in the hot sun. I arrived at the site, West Carteret High School, an hour early to set everything up. The car was began at 10:30, where our first car arrived. We had 4 people holding signs out on the road to advertise and 12 people washing cars. We remained steady throughout the day. The people washing cars and holding signs rotated through every 45 minutes. At 2:30, we packed up and made West Carteret look better than when we arrived! I did not count how many cars we washed, but it was very successful. We raised $1,000.05 for Hope Mission!

I have emailed all of my friends (volunteers) that helped out. I wrote a hand-written note to Mr. Noe, the advisor that supervised the car wash. All of the volunteers said the four hours went by quickly and they all had a lot of fun! Today I went to Hope Mission to deliver the money we raised, which was just over $1,000. This truly made it all worth it. Some people that Hope Mission serves were there and they were so incredibly delighted. The man in charge at the moment was so happy too. He thanked us and gave us hugs. It genuinely brought tears to his eyes to see young people in the community giving back.