Junior Chloe Dorst’s first day on the job was nothing short of fast and furious.

“I had about six kids around this table that’s only supposed to have like four people around it. We were making flowers and I decided that it would be a good idea to have a bunch of pieces to these flowers,” Dorst said. “So there were petals and centers and stems and some leaves and I was trying to manage all of these kids, but it was really fun and at the end I was pretty much sold. It was really chaotic and hectic but I loved it at the same time.”

Since February, Dorst has been volunteering twice a week on the Flint Hills Discovery Center’s second floor, supervising and interacting with the younger guests.

“Mrs. [Carla] Johntson had this big list of stuff you could do and I was kind of interested in the Discovery Center and she told me to just go ahead and apply; just do it. And I did. It all kind of fell into place and it’s been really fun ever since,” Dorst said. “There’s so much energy all the time and it always makes me feel good.”

For many Manhattan High students, the cord that comes with attaining 100 service hours was a big incentive to take time out of the summer to volunteer.

“I thought I was just going to get the 100 hours and stop,” Dorst said, “but I’m definitely going to volunteer well after the 100 hours. Volunteering is important [to me]. At first I was doing it for the hours, but I really like this place. It’s such a cool place for the kids; they really enjoy it. It’s all really fun and they’re all learning a lot and there’s a lot of ‘Kansas culture’ here…that’s the best part.”

MHS’s reward for attaining community service hours was also a motive for sophomore Kendra Geisbrecht.

“If I didn’t have to get the service hours, I might not be volunteering. Since I was pushed to do the program, it made me go out and volunteer and I’ve realized that I really like volunteering,” Geisbrecht said.

Geisbrecht began volunteering at the Discovery Center this summer. Like Dorst, she devotes eight hours a week to assisting the guests.

“If I wasn’t here than I’d just be sitting around my house doing nothing so it’s a lot more fun than that,” Geisbrecht said. “It’s neat when after you make a craft with a kid or something and they love it and they show their parents and they’re so happy…that’s really cool.”

The Discovery Center’s Volunteer/Visitor Services Manager, Susan Adams, believes volunteering is just as important to the students as it is to the community.

“It could be their first opportunity to show off their skills and learn how to commit to a scheduled time to be present other than school events. Both of these skills will help them when it comes to future employment,” Adams said. “Most often they volunteer on the second floor in the children’s area. This area allows each student the freedom to use the resources and be creative with young visitors to make their visit a wonderful, lasting experience. Personally, I get a lot of reward when I see the students being successful. I hope that their experience with volunteering will carry them to other experiences as they grow into adults and contribute their time to future organizations. Thrilled that I could be a part of their growth.”

Both Dorst and Geisbrecht have come to value student volunteering.

“I think, especially in places like this, volunteering is pretty valuable,” Dorst said. “A lot of towns our size don’t have stuff like the Discovery Center, because it’s just really unique and really special and they need their volunteers because they can’t afford to pay every person to work in all the areas everyday. So it’s definitely important to keep places like this up and running and volunteers are a big part of that. [After] going into something thinking I wasn’t going to enjoy it and be into it and then just getting really dedicated to it and caring about everything here and all the people here, I think, in the future, I’ll be more open to doing different things that aren’t necessarily something I think I’d be interested in and just doing things for the fun of doing them.”

Geisbrecht agrees.

“People should volunteer more. Here, they only have three high school volunteers which is pretty surprising because there’s so much that can be done and it’s a great place to volunteer; you can do crafts all day,” Geisbrecht said.