Cultural+Organizations

The Chester County Art Association otherwise known as ‘The Humongous Place that Uses a TON of tape!’ –Jamie Murphy Soika  Place I worked at: The Chester County Art Association Their address: Chester County Art Association, 100 North Bradford Avenue, West Chester, PA 19382 How you can contact them: Either by phone: 610-696-5600 or by this address: [] A brief description of what you did: Most of what I did was packaging artwork and just helping out in random small tasks like inventory and what not. I also helped with their pumpkin carve event (where I got to carve a pumpkin in my free time). Why it was good to do: it was actually a lot of fun and all of the people there are so nice! Plus you’re surrounded by good artwork, and that’s always nice. A short excerpt from your journal: “This time, instead of stuffing envelopes, I’ve upgraded to packaging paintings. It’s good to know that if I ever need a job to fall back on I can work at a postal office. For the most part, I worked with this old-ish lady named Patty…or maybe it was Peggy. No matter her name she was //very// feisty. She had an opinion on everything, had white hair and a bad back, and used to live in Chicago, from what I gathered. Something else I gathered from her was that she wasn’t someone you’d mess with, but all in all I liked her a lot! My day began by bringing up thick packaging boxes that the artists had used to ship their paintings. They were all humongous and really hard to carry…they all also were falling apart. When we got the cases up, Darcy showed me how to properly package a painting (identifying which painting went to which box, making sure all of the information was correct, etc, etc)—using lots and //lots// of tape.” A picture/video/sound clip of you or your project in action: I hadn’t realized I had pictures of my work in action. But these are the finished packed paintings…so much tape -- Advice you would give others considering or planning to do this project: Hm….try to find a time when they have lots of work—like packaging paintings. They’re A LOT more fun then the small tasks like stuffing letters or vacuuming the whole entire building (which Zack, a different volunteer had to do. You wouldn’t believe how large this place really is). Another piece of advice would be to bring music. I didn’t bring music and at times it was VERY boring and silent (when I wasn’t talking to the people of the CCAA). Of course if you’re cool with silence it becomes very Zen like. Your name and school year (2011-2012): Jamie Murphy Soika 2016

= **Heritage Academy Rosalie Dear** =

I worked for Heritage Academy. You can reach them by email Kwesi Koomson at Kwesi.Koomson@westtown.eduor calling him at (610)-399-7690. You can also go to their website []

Advice I would give to future 8th graders is to never underestimate how much your helping. Even if your just stamping envelopes for three weeks you are doing a HUGE favor. I did many small jobs that needed to be done and had been put off. I did get to work on some big projects because I had done the preperation work. Also, when you volunteer you are sometimes going to have to do things you are not completely comfortable with. For example, I went to book stores (Barnes and Nobles, Chester County Books) and wrapped gifts for people. At first it was nerve wracking but with time I got the hang of it. I also met some great people. Just by telling people about the school in Ghana and rapping their books I raised nearly one hundred dollars. I am very proud.

The chester county library
450 Exton Square ParkwayExton, PA   610-280-2600 19341

A brief description of what I did was basiclly take to the books from the return box and put them back in there place. I also worked on stamping letters to people who have overdue books. Advice to the younger kids is to bring something to do becuase youll find out that it gets very quiet in the Library. I learned a lot about how to categorize books from A though Z, you would think it is an easy process but really its confusing when you come down to the genres and authors last name. It was also fun because i made some very good acquaintances from all ages. I am very happy that i was engulfed in the community with such a warm welcome. 2012 Keith Franklin 2016