The room smelled like fresh toys and the sight of soccer balls and stuffed animals filled the area. Junior Bethany Brummitt was volunteering at her church, First Baptist Church North Kansas City. Brummitt’s passion is volunteering, which she does as much as she can, often with her church. She strives to volunteer six to seven times a month.
“It really proves the meaning of hard work. Doing it (volunteering) without expecting monetary benefits is really impactful because you know you’re just doing it to help other people,” Brummitt said.
Brummit dedicates around 3 hours a month to volunteering, most commonly with her church (First Baptist Church NKC). In addition to volunteering, Brummitt houses a foreign exchange student, senior Leah Graversen, and previously freshman Jacob Norup where she and her family had a good experience and wanted to participate again.
“It’s really great to meet new people from a different culture and learn different things that I wouldn’t have known without her staying with us,” Brummitt said.
Brummitt has completed multiple mission trips around the world such as her visit one summer to Nicaragua where she built houses. This was something she had never done before which made the experience very unique. In addition to Nicaragua, she has also missioned to Louisiana, Kentucky, Prague and Czech Republic.
“I like to go on Mission trips because I get to help different communities and I get to share with others the great news of Jesus,” Brummit said.
Brummitt’s next project is a Christmas donation drive with her church. Her church does this in a form of an advent calendar food drive. Each day, members of her church collect a food item and put it in a box at home. Then on the 24th, at the church’s Christmas Eve service, everyone brings the box full of all the food they’ve been collecting. The church has a food pantry, which all the Christmas donations help to stock.
“I am proud that my daughter wants to serve and help in so many ways,” Brummits mom, Andrea Brummit said.
Brummit hopes to help out struggling families and donate toys and other needs for the holiday season.
“My favorite part of it all was making important relationships and seeing her impact on the community,” Brummit said.
Volunteering is important because it impacts communities who may be struggling in certain aspects. Missouri specifically is a state which excels in their volunteer percentages, especially before the pandemic.
According to Yahoo, “In a recent study by AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, Missouri came in 10th in the nation with a formal volunteering rate of 30.5% in 2021 and Kansas came in eighth with a rate of 31.5%.
To find out how to volunteer around Liberty, Brummitt recommends churches in the area, including her own https://fbcnkc.org/ , or other opportunities can be found at https://www.kcmo.gov/programs-initiatives/volunteer or https://kctoday.6amcity.com/city-guide/play/volunteer-opportunities-kansas-city .
