Let’s talk community service and ‘Hunger Games’

BY Spencer Massicot

Spencer Massicot
Teen Columnist, The Friday Flyer

One thing that a lot of students my age don’t think about is where they are going to get their community service in. A lot of kids just think, “I have four years to do 40 hours, so I do not have to start on it right now.”

There are so many simple ways you can get a little bit done at a time and not feel like you are taking up a bunch of time when you could be doing something else.

Since cross country is over, I have been staying after school in the Video Production, Coding and Web Design class that meets two days a week. I stay for an hour or two each day just working on the school website.

I do not even take that class, but one of my friends invited me to come with him. It is super easy and it only takes a little bit out of your day.

I am also going to do a more fun project for my community service. My dad is going to be coaching a youth basketball team in Wildomar, and I get to be his assistant coach.

I get to help the kids and, whenever I go to a practice or a game, my hours will be logged. I will help with drills and I will have input on the team. It is also a chance to test out my leadership skills.

Doing something for community service that you are passionate about will also help. I love basketball and, to me, it will not even feel like I am working; it will feel like I am back in youth basketball, just at one of my practices.

Some other things kids can do in the area for their community service hours are helping at the Animal Friends of the Valley shelter, where you can work with the animals and help care for them.

You can also help inside of Canyon Lake. Inside of Canyon Lake there are events like the Renaissance Faire, Fiesta Day and so much more that teens can help at. You can also help at several elementary schools when they put on events.

Someone I know recently helped at Wildomar Elementary, painting murals with the kids. Someone else I know helped at Ronald Reagan for a fair they had. It is so easy because you can get hours for things that may actually be fun when you are doing them.

To change the subject – coming up soon is the movie premiere of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2,” which is one of my favorite movie/book series.

I first read the “Hunger Games” when I was in 5th grade. I had never heard of it before and, with the movie coming out soon, I wanted to read it.

At first I was a little shocked when I found out what it was about. But when I read it, I just fell in love with it. I read all three books and I couldn’t wait for the movies. I wasn’t expecting the movie to be good because, after you have read the books, the movies just aren’t the same. But the Hunger Games movie opened up my imagination and helped me see what these places looked like.

I have read all of the books several times and I am a total nerd for them. Leading up to when I go see the final movie, I am going to read all of the books one more time and I am so excited. A lot of people see “The Hunger Games” as just a book about children put in arena to kill each other off, but it is so much more.

Suzanne Collins is an incredible writer, and there is so much symbolism. Everything in the first book sets up what happens in the second and third. The poisonous berries stand for the first act of rebellion, and the Mockingjay pin basically symbolizes the uprising of the rebellion and the destruction of government.

But after all of the totalitarian government stuff is taken away, “The Hunger Games” is a love story that starts with the drawing of the names at the reaping and lasts until the epilogue of the final book.

In the movie, the actors portray the story in a beautiful way and they capture the emotions that the characters in the book are feeling. There is plenty of action to entertain people who do not want to go to a movie to see a love story play out.

There is something in everyone, however, that feels the pain of the starving citizens of the districts, the constant fear of children when the reapings get nearer and nearer, and the sorrow of the parents as they send their child away to die as a symbol of the rebellion, even though it isn’t real.