MOST OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY SERVICE/INVOLVEMENT NOMINEE
Ole Miss Vietnamese American Student Association
Leap Frog Cultural Enrichment Activity
Provide a detailed description of the event and the population it served. Details MUST include: date of event, number of participants, program purpose (goals, objectives, etc.) and use of resources (finances, community support, etc.).
Leap Frog provides reading intervention, tutoring, and enrichment activities to 120 first, second- and third-graders from Oxford and Lafayette public schools. On February 27th, 10 of our members went to Oxford-University Methodist Church to host an enrichment activity to spread cultural awareness to the youth of the Oxford and Lafayette area. This enrichment activity occurs every year. We have developed a relationship with the Leap Frog staff. They highlight our enrichment activity and organization on their website. This year, we brought ao dais and a lion head from our inventory and local temple to display to the kids for them to look at. We displayed a presentation detailing aspects of our culture as well as their origins making sure to answer any questions that the children had. We also ordered lì xì for the children to engage in an interactive activity during which they wrote kind notes to one another and gave each other the envelopes learning to accept it with both hands.
What efforts were used to motivate and involve the organization's members?
We made members aware of this event early on by announcing it at our general meeting as well as including it in several emails. We emphasized the importance of sharing our culture with the community. We also use member points as an incentive for all community service within our organization. The top ten members at the end of the year are rewarded by being taken out to dinner by E-Board. A GroupMe was also created to gauge member ideas for activities to include and to maintain communication.