Student volunteer hopes to lead others by his example

College senior Matthew Rist understands that community service has two aspects -- hands-on volunteering and behind-the-scenes administrative work. While his fellow students are in class or at internships, Rist commutes twice a week to the Germantown Boys and Girls Club to volunteer with children. Noting that he was only a part-time student this semester, Rist -- who is also a member of the community service organization Youth Are Resources -- said community service "seemed like a natural fit." At 21, he is also one of the oldest members of the Youth Leadership Council, which is meeting today to discuss the upcoming Presidents' Summit. Youth Are Resources established the Council to appropriate grant money to grassroots projects and organizations. The group received a $360,000 grant -- to be used over the next 3 to 4 years -- from the William Penn Foundation. Rist noted that that amount comes down to only about $80,000 per year for all youth volunteer programs in the Philadelphia area. "That's peanuts -- that's less than peanuts," he said. Members of the Council range in age from 14 to 21 years. The Council has sole jurisdiction to distribute the grant money to youth community service projects. Rist said the Presidents' Summit was originally intended as an adult-youth volunteer partnership, but since then it has become "very corporate." Only two of the Council members -- the chairperson and vice-chairperson -- were invited to the summit. Rist commented that although the summit is drawing a lot of media coverage, by next week everyone will have left and the children will still need assistance. "There's only so much of the pie and some people get cut out," Rist said. "These children up here are the ones suffering the consequences for a capitalist society." Discussing potential long-term solutions, Rist said the only way to fix the nation's poverty crisis is by a "redistribution of wealth." "Everyone loves to see little babies? but eventually those little kids grow up and a lot of them get angry and bitter," he added. "You can even see it in these 9-year-olds." Rist also criticized the University's efforts to interact with West Philadelphia neighborhoods. He explained that the University should do more to help local residents. "Penn always talks about Penn in partnership with the community? and they put up 5,000 street lights around West Philadelphia," he said. "It depends what kind of partnership they're talking about." But he also noted that University students need to take an active role in community service as well. In Rist's bi-weekly trip to the Boys and Girls Club, he played games with the children and helped them with homework. Eight-year-old Dontia Sellers said, "He's nice, he's kind and he shares." And eight-year-old Ken Hercules added, "Matt is my favorite volunteer. He always teaches people homework, and he lets us play soccer outside." Rist will be at the Boys and Girls Club this Sunday to help with the opening of the National Citizens' Service Project -- which thousands of participants are expected to attend -- up and down Germantown Avenue. "If you're taking more than you're giving, you're probably a greedy person," Rist said.