ICF and Serving the Community
ICF Community Service Philosophy:
Providing community services in our communities is a crucial
responsibility of all citizens. The ICF supports community service
at all levels. Not only do we give back to the gymastics
community, but we encourage all ICF members and scholarship
recipients to give back to the communities in which they live.
Each of the athletes that receives a scholarship is already giving
back to their communities in some way.
In
addition to his work with ICF, Logan volunteers regularly to help
feed the homeless in his local community. This year, ICF gave
its first Community Service Award at the Iron Cross Challenge to the
gym who raised the most meals for the Million Meals Community
Challenge (Congratulations Black Hills Gymanstics!) Gymnastics
clubs worked together to raise nearly 2000 meals in one weekend.
In addition, they helped contribute nearly 3500 pounds of
non-parishable food the local food banks by donating food for their
entrance fee to the competition.
We have partnered with Visalus to continue to raise awareness of hunger issues and to provide nutritious meals for children and senior citizens in need. A donation of $24 will help provide 60 meals. We challenge all members of the gymanstics community to participate in this challenge. If you want to help, follow the link to Million Meal Community Challenge.
Learn more about ICF Founder,
Logan Melander's approach to community service and volunteerism by
reading his speech at a press conference in China at the end of the
cultural and sports exchange:
Logan Melander’s Press Conference Speech on Service and
Volunteerism
ICF and ANC Consulting’s Youth Cultural Exchange 2011
28 July, 2011
Beijing, China
Thank you for allowing me to speak today….
I want to thank – Annie An of ANC-Consulting, Karen Zediker of the
Iron Cross Foundation, each of the members of our Sport and Cultural
Exchange.
This gymnastics and cultural exchange in
China has been AMAZING!
Highlights of the trip for me include….
…Climbing the Chang Cheng – the Great Wall of China,
…Training with Chinese gymnasts at the Beijing Professional Sports
School, and
…Making new friends from China.
I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a little about what
gymnastics means to me – and why I felt it was important to give
back and start the Iron Cross Foundation in the first place.
I started ICF because I wanted to give back to my sport.
I grew up giving back to my community in a lot of ways, and
it just made sense to me to give something back to my sport.
Gymnastics is an
amazing sport that gives those who are a part of it some important
life lessons.
1
Gymnastics brings people together so you can learn about them
and from them.
(This trip is an example
of that)
2
Physical and mental skills
3
Gymnastics builds character
First, This Sports and Cultural Exchange trip is an example of how
gymnastics can bring people
together and learn about each other.
All of the kids from the US are gymnasts – and getting to
come and train with gymnasts in China was great!
We learned about how they train and live and how that is the
same and different from us.
We also got the chance to meet our new Chinese friends who
aren’t gymnasts and learn about their Chinese culture.
Next, gymnastics is a physical outlet for people who have a lot of
energy. It lets us do
something that is productive rather than just bouncing off walls and
furniture at home driving people crazy.
It lets us get in shape and stay in shape.
Gymnasts generally take good care of their bodies – we eat
right and stay in shape mentally as well as physically.
The mental aspects of gymnastics include
building confidence – the
confidence you have when you know you are going to do well, your
chances are going to increase dramatically.
When you know you are prepared to compete, you know that you
will be able to do most anything.
And that sense of confidence is really important.
There is a difference between being cocky and being
confident. If you are
cocky, that means that you are over-zealous and that you don’t
believe that you can never lose.
Confident gymnasts know that it is possible to fall at any
time, but know they are prepared to do well – that they have
practiced long and hard and can do what they are there to do.
Another mental aspect of gymnastics is
focus.
Before a routine, as you compete more often, you learn how to
clear your mind before a meet.
You focus on the event rather than the crowd.
It is not like you cannot hear them, but the focus is on the
gymnastics moves at hand.
You learn to focus on one pass or skill at a time.
Focus on the moment.
When you are in the moment, then BE in the moment.
Don’t worry about something else.
Finally, gymnastics helps people develop Character.
Three things about Character that I learned from gymnastics are
discipline, respect, and sportsmanship.
Discipline: It is kind of hard to explain
discipline. Structure
and order is key to discipline.
Gymnastics is very orderly and structured – the rules are
strict and it is all cut and dry.
Each event has element groups and they all have to be
fulfilled. There are
rules on top of rules on top of rules.
Generally I don’t like rules – or at least I like to
challenge them, but gymnastics teaches me to work within them.
It helps me accept rules and structure.
You also have to be disciplined in order to learn new things.
You have to show up to practice every day and when you are
there, listen to your coach, complete your assignments, and do the
things that you might not like to do, but you know are necessary to
succeed in the sport.
There are times when I would love to stay home and just hang out
with my friends from school, but I know that if I did that a lot, I
would not be the gymnast I am today, or meet my goals for becoming
the gymnast I want to be in the future.
Discipline goes together with
respect. As a
gymnast, you have to learn to respect authority and to respect
people who are above you in the gymnastics world (whether that is
another gymnast, a coach, or someone in the USA Gymnastics
infrastructure). Respect
is important not only in gymnastics, but in life.
If you can’t respect authority in your everyday life, things
are going to be difficult for you.
There is always someone who is going to be above you, and
whether you like them or not, you need to respect them for what they
have done, what they know, or what they can teach you.
Sportsmanship is like disciple and respect in
action. It is the
epitome of an athlete’s character.
Athletes who are good sports, are not only good at the skills
in their sport, but are good at respecting others who are better
than them and encouraging athletes that are coming up behind them.
The men’s gymnastics community is a small one, and we support
each other even when we are competing against each other.
Of course, you want to do your best and win, but you also
hope that everyone else does their best as well.
We don’t want to win because someone else falls or fails.
It is really common for guys from different teams to rotate
together at a big meet, and you encourage and cheer for each other
as if you are on the same team.
In the grand scheme of things, we are all on the same team –
men’s gymnastics!
You may be able to tell that what I have learned from gymnastics
makes a difference in my life – and helped give me some of the
values that influenced me to start the Iron Cross Foundation when I
was 12 years old. My
family taught me that giving back to others is important, and that
even though I am an only child, the world is not all about me.
I want to talk with you now about the importance of volunteering and
being a leader for serving others.
According to Mahatma Gandhi, “To find yourself, you need to first
lose yourself in the service of others”
While you may not believe in losing yourself to find
yourself, many people in the US believe that community service is a
good idea. But in my own
experience – and even a survey of teens and young adults, only some
people actually engage in it already.
Reasons people give for
not volunteering include:
- They think that doing
community service is boring
- They don’t know how
or where to start
- They believe you have value altruism to serve the community
BUT SERVICE IS A GREAT THING – Both for you and the people you
serve!
Even small acts of service matter.
You have the potential to make life better for somebody by
doing something that is simple and easy.
What are some examples of easy service that matters?
Since I was a little kid, my parents taught me to go out and
help my neighbors with their yards.
In the summer I would mow their yard or pull weeds in their
gardens. In the winter I
would shovel snow off their walk.
These were easy tasks for me – I was a little kid and I did
what I was able to do.
But those small acts of kindness could help them maintain their
homes (especially our neighbors who were old or who were sick) and
it kept them safe. It
also makes the image of your part of the community better when
houses look good from the outside.
I volunteer at a church in my hometown that provides a hot breakfast once
a week for people who are homeless.
I get up early in the morning and go downtown and start
fixing breakfast for them.
Cracking eggs and mixing them is not hard.
Making lots of toast is not hard, Making grits (kind of a
porridge) is not hard.
Handing someone a plate of healthy, hot food is not hard.
But, for the people who don’t have anywhere to cook for themselves, and
who live on the streets or under bridges, that hot meal really
matters. It’s easy for
me, but it makes a huge difference for them.
The meal I help cook and serve may be the only food they have
that day.
Another thing that I can do that makes a difference in their life is to
sit down and talk with them – mostly listen to them.
Everyone has a story that they want to share, but so often
people who are homeless don’t have anyone who is willing to listen.
Some of you may believe that people who are in need must have done
something bad to mess things up in their life, so it’s not up to you
to help them. Some
people call that Karma.
You might ask, Why should you go out of your way to help people who
have had a chance and screwed it up?
Even if you feel this way, you can choose to serve
because it is good for you!
At least in the US, you can get a scholarship for college or
even a job because of a good record of service.
Serving others also makes you feel good.
It doesn’t have to be for the “down and out” but for your own
future that you engage in community service.
I want all of you to give back to your community in some way, shape
or form.
You would be surprised at what you can do if you just start with what you know or what you already care about.
Little things can grow into bigger things
Acting on what you believe is a good idea and can sometimes make the
biggest difference.
I started with my neighborhood, and then to people in my community.
When I got hurt as a gymnast, I took the opportunity to give
back to my own sport of gymnastics that had already given me so
much.
I was injured when I was 12 years old – about the same age as some
of my new Chinese friends - and I was forced to take 6 months off
from gymnastics. At the
time, my orthopedic specialist didn’t think I would be able to
return to the sport. The
time away from my regular 20 hours of training each week gave me the
opportunity to act on what I had wanted to do for a while I just
didn’t know how to do it, which was the desire to give back to my
sport. I started the
Iron Cross Foundation with the help of family and friends in
Washington state and gave out my first two scholarships when I was
13. Now we work
throughout the United States and ICF hosts major meets to raise
money and has been able to provide scholarships to over 17 male
gymnasts throughout the country (even some guys who are on the US
Junior National team).
The Iron Cross Foundation supports gymnastics dreams.
We help athletes in the United States whose families don’t
have enough money to continue in the sport of gymnastics.
We provide a supportive community for gymnasts and their
coaches and families. We
also provide educational resources about gymnastics through our
website. ICF also helped
with this sport and cultural exchange.
All of the US members of this exchange are members of the
Iron Cross Foundation and were able to save some money on their trip
to China because they support ICF.
I hope that ICF will be able to continue to bring gymnasts
from the US to China to have the amazing experiences we have had
here – things that have been dream come true experiences.
I also hope that many of the Chinese athletes that we will
trained with this summer will be able to come to the to participate
in the Iron Cross Challenge in January of 2012 in the Unites States
and their own cultural exchange opportunity.
As I said earlier, gymnastics gives people an outlet for physical
activity. It also
teaches you how to overcome fear, to focus, and develops character.
We learn discipline, respect, and sportsmanship.
Learning how to get back up when you fall or fail, and that with
dedication and effort, anything is possible is important not only in
gymnastics, but in volunteering for others – and for life in
general.
6 months from now, what if each of you did something to help your
community? What would be
different than it is today?
There are 22 of us kids on our sport and cultural exchange.
What if each of you inspires 21 more people to do something
because of what you did,
just like I am trying to do today? That would be 441 people.
And what if those 441 people inspire another 441 people?
That would become 194,481 people doing something to
help strengthen and support your community.
I want to leave you with another quote from Gandhi:
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” I have this
posted on my mirror in my bedroom as a constant reminder that there
are people out there that need help and that I can be someone who
gives them that help.
Go be the change in your part of your community. Go serve your
community in any way, shape or form!
