There is an elderly lady that lives on our block. With spring just around the corner, she needed a little help getting her yard ready for her spring flowers to sprout up through the ground. We called up a few friends and we all met at her house at 11 o'clock this morning. We handed out rakes and brooms and yard bags. A few pairs of gloves to a yard full of teenagers.

In just a few minutes the laughter began. Everyone was working hard and enjoying themselves. It didn't take us long at all. We put the rakes away and the neighbor came out with warm, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

Everyone stood around smiling and eating a treat. We walked across the street and called the kids. I passed around a picture that I had taken of the front yard earlier that morning. Then I told them to look a crossed the street at the house now.

We heard gasps of wow. It looked so nice. My husband said how does it feel to be a responsible for a job well done? You could see the feelings of pride on their faces and even a few tears.

We treated everyone to McDonalds cheeseburgers and fries and talked and enjoyed our lunch. As we were leaving everybody was asking when we could do this again. That was a little surprising to us.

So I guess we have a community project team now. I felt so proud of them. But what really mattered was they felt proud of themselves.

The elderly neighbor won the hearts of all those kids just by her offering of cookies. I have a feeling she wont need to worry about anyone raking her leaves this year. (smile)

Just small projects like this opens the window to a person to feel. They gave back to someone else by just cleaning her yard and they were the ones walking away feeling all the good benefits of being a good citizen.

That is only one reason I love working with Older Children. They are so full of ideas and like a sponge they soak up what ever is going on around them. So many times it is a negative feeling. Today it was a wonderful feeling of a job well done by their own hands.