Service Learning is the cornerstone class that links academic studies at the College of Muscogee Nation (CMN) with the student and the communities. Each will strengthen the other as we learn to use cultural and historical facts and traditions to face social problems, meet human needs, promote civic responsibility and provide a basis for future citizen support. My service project is using volunteerism to improve the quality of life for the children in the Okmulgee area by applying the Muscogee traditions and culture taught to us through the curriculum of College of Muscogee Nation and our ancestors. The first goal of this service learning project is to improve the quality of life for the children of the low-income Okmulgee community residents. A historical assessment of the Okmulgee area provides a picture of drastic change and a people trying to make genuine progress in face of pressure beyond their control. This area, like the United States, has experienced drastic changes in the last fifty years including loss of manufacturing plants such as the Peanut Plant, Phillips 66 Refinery, Americana Window Glass, Ingersoll-Rand, and Ball Brothers Glass. The 2013 U.S. Census Bureau lists the population of Okmulgee as 12, 373 with 25.5% below poverty level. The per capita income for the 12 months (in 2013 dollars) is 16, 981 compared to the national per capita of $24,208. According to Oklahoma Unemployment records the unemployment rate in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma was 4.1% in April 2008 and increased to 11.8% in January 2010. The unemployment rate for Okmulgee County as of October 2014 is 6.0%, two-tenths above the national rate of 5.8%; however, it was over 7.9% in March 2014. In my opinion the unemployment rate for our area is much higher than 6.0%. Many residents are not registered because their unemployment benefits have expired. Others have taken part-time minimum wage jobs in the service industry, well below their original salaries, creating many low-income and below poverty families. In addition, it is necessary for many of these families with children to receive food stamps from DHS or commodities from Muscogee Creek Nation (MCN). LIHEAP assistance and/or help from local churches and charities. The second goal is to apply our extraordinary historical and cultural inheritance to this service project. Tribal government, along with other Tribal History, Tribal Land Issues and Tribal Legal Studies teach that many aspects of our modern life were adapted from the old Indian cultures practiced centuries ago. Our leaders were chosen for their concern for other tribal community members and their personal values had to include at a minimum: * Trust and Respect for others * Helping others within the community * Harmony and balance * Living a humble life
The College of Muscogee Nation reflects these core values as they are given to us to learn and use daily in our lives at school and beyond: * Vrakkuechv (Respect), * Fvtcetv (Integrity), * Mecvlke (Responsibility), * Eyasketv (Humility) and * Hoporenkv (Wisdom). Based on the economy of the Okmulgee community I chose “ringing bells” for the “Red Kettle Project” at the Salvation Army as my service project. In 1879 the first Salvation Army made its way to San Francisco, California from England. (Schwarts 2001) Today, the Salvation Army is the second-largest charity in America —United Way is number one. It began in 1865 when William Booth, a London minister, gave up the comfort of his pulpit and decided to take his message into the streets where it would reach the poor, the homeless, the hungry and the destitute. Today the Salvation Army is operating in 160 countries. In the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007 private donations of almost $2 billion were received. In 2004, the U. S Salvation Army received a $1.6 billion donation in the will of Joan B. Kroc, third wife of former McDonald’s CEO Ray Kroc. This donation was among the largest individual philanthropic gifts ever given to a single organization. The Okmulgee branch is a part of the Tulsa Office; however, all money collected locally stays in Okmulgee county, where economic changes abound, including the dislocation of the traditional family, the changing roles of women, and the aging of the population. The economy has been stunned by inflation, deflation, stagflation, up and down interest rates and a recurring cycle of panic over national deficits. (McEachern) The Okmulgee Salvation Army focuses on helping those in need during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Elderly and low-income families are given food to prepare for Thanksgiving Dinner. During Christmas the Angel tree provides gifts for the children in our area who are from low-income families or live in poverty. An angel is prepared with the child’s age, gender, and requested gift for all approved applicants 12 or under. The angels are hung on a large tree at Wal-Mart. City and county residents visit Wal-Mart and adopt a child’s angel. The Red Kettle “bell ringers” are located outside Wal-Mart to accept donations. The donations are used to purchase toys/gifts for the children whose names are not adopted by a visitor to Wal-Mart or whose name adopted but not returned with a gift. The donations are also used for the Thanksgiving food baskets for the elderly and low-income families. Ninety percent of the monies collected are returned to the poor and needy in this area. The economy affects all charitable donations nationwide. The Salvation Army is hoping for a better kettle campaign this year even though many Okmulgee residents are still experiencing tough times. Thanks to the many gifts from local individuals and businesses, the Okmulgee branch has succeeded every year in helping Okmulgee’s children and families homeless or in need of assistance. Despite the fact that many Americans' only contact with the Salvation Army is its holiday season kettles or its more than 1,300 thrift stores, two programs represent less than 15% of the charity's annual revenue in the U.S. (Most of the income comes from in-kind donations, government funds, and direct online or mail contributions.) In the general perspective, the concept of volunteering refers to ―rendering of service by choice of or free will for the benefit of the wider community by an individual, group, or institution without necessarily expecting monetary gain in full knowledge and appreciation of being a volunteer. In the last decades, government has recognized the critical contribution that volunteering makes: * Building a strong and cohesive society. * promotes volunteering as the essential act of citizenship, * use as a means for combating social exclusion, * delivery of high quality public services and * impacts life and career paths of the individuals that take part in volunteering. A 2007 study published by the American Educational Research Journal identified community service during high school as a strong predictor of voting and volunteering in adulthood. This suggests that people may move from occasional volunteer action to more sustained engagement in activities related to development and change. Volunteering facilitates a deeper understanding of the issues producing the socio-economic conditions that volunteers and social activists aim to address, and can strengthens social inclusion by fostering participation in activities seeking to change those conditions. Growing up in the 1950s at Newtown Church, with a Native American father, we were taught to always respect others (bullying or making fun of others was definitely not allowed) and help others any way possible. We helped as needy baskets were delivered, transportation was provided, and church camps taught those attending our traditional values. Today, the volunteer rate of Generation Xers has trended upward over the past few years, increasing nearly 5.5 percentage points, and Generation X has the highest volunteer rate of any age group. Volunteering among teenagers (ages 16-19) has trended positively over the past six years up nearly 3 percentage points since the year 2007. Volunteers age 65 and over spent a median of 90 hours on volunteer activities in 2012, the highest among any age group, and far above the 50 median annual hours served by the general volunteer population. Working mothers continue to volunteer at a significantly higher rate than the population as a whole. The volunteer rate of parents with children under age 18 (33.5 percent) remained higher than the population as a whole (26.5 percent) and for persons without children (23.8 percent). To promote volunteering for the students of CMN, I chose to give a ten minute speech to my Speech class, explaining the ways of our people and the importance of helping others and development of a spirit of cooperation. Our commitment to helping others spans across generations. I started volunteering early in life and have continued for years. In 2002 I volunteered for the Salvation Army for the first time and I have continued to volunteer every year. While working at Creek Nation Elderly Housing, I formed a committee of ten elders (Age 50 to 77) who rang bells between November 26th and Christmas Eve. Because everyone had different experiences and unique backgrounds, the benefits varied from “doing our part” to developing a higher self-esteem and a feeling of being needed. Several studies have shown that volunteering, no matter what age, provides many internal rewards including: * social recognition * self-esteem * fulfillment * respect CMN has a different culture than many other colleges or universities. The college’s main focus is higher education in a culturally rich environment while preserving and instructing Native American’s on traditions. The vision of teaching the traditions to the younger generation is to preserve traditions passed down from our native ancestors. By volunteering we can engage in a creative relationship with the external world. By drawing on our cultural heritage we can shape our emotional connections, historical consciousness and reverence for earth and every living thing. Service Projects play a major role for the students in learning and experiencing the ability to make positive changes for individuals, organizations, neighborhoods and communities. Volunteering is just one of the methods CMN utilizes to demonstrate our increased knowledge, improved skills and learning accomplishments at the College of Muscogee Nation. Our changes in behavior, judgment, attitudes, or feelings are also representative of what we learned during our cultural education . The Salvation Army’s mission is “Changing Lives for the Better”. Students at the College of the Muscogee Nation are also “Preserving the Past and Cultivating Futures” for themselves, the community, and the next generation.

Bibliography www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/history http://www.homefacts.com/unemployment/Oklahoma/Okmulgee-County.html http://www.muscogeenation-nsn.gov/Pages/History/history.html http://www.census.gov/did/www/saipe/data/statecounty/data/2012.html http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/assets/resources/IssueBriefFINALJune14.pdf The Corporation for National & Community Services, “Youth Helping America”, 2006;
McEachern, William A. ECON Macro Edition 4. United States of America: Cengage Learning, 2015.
O'Brien, Sharon. Native American Indian Tribal Governments. University of Oklaoma Press, Norman,, 1989.