Summertime Service: New Jersey’s IMPACT Youth Club And Its Mission

It is 8:30 AM on a Monday, and the Embassy Suites by Hilton Berkeley Heights lobby is dotted with young boys and girls, all clad in the same cyan T-shirt. Some of these teenagers drove themselves. Others carpooled. And there was a sizable number who had barely gotten over their jet lag (courtesy of their recent 15-hour flight) and stumbled out of their hotel room to meet the rest of the group. 

But no matter how they all arrived, these students all had the same goal in mind: giving back to the community. 

IMPACT Youth Club was founded in 2014 by Wendy Wu, as a subsidiary of her existing music organization, IMPACT. As a 501(c) nonprofit organization, the club, made up of mostly middle and high-schoolers, has spent the last eleven years dedicated to aiding the greater New Jersey community through various acts of service. These include musical events, donation drives, environmental clean-ups, and more. Since 2014, IMPACT Youth Club has amassed 26,000 total hours of community service, all of which have been contributed by its 300 young volunteers. 

While its humble beginnings are rooted in New Jersey, IMPACT Youth Club has expanded into other states as well, such as Connecticut, New York, and across to the West Coast in California. But its most ambitious branch lies across the Pacific Ocean, nearly 8,000 miles away, on the island of Taiwan. 

The New Jersey branch made the 15-hour journey in 2024, bringing their musical talents to Taipei to celebrate the organization’s efforts during that volunteering season. And now, a year later, the Taiwanese branch and its young members have undertaken the same mission, arriving in the United States on August 2nd to join the New Jerseyans in a week-long volunteering effort. 

After a day at the Terhune Orchards and Princeton University to welcome the Taiwanese to the States, the IMPACT Youth Club made its way to the Wagner Farm Arboretum. There, under the grueling sun, they aided the Giving Gardens organization in harvesting a variety of plants from their beds, which were to be donated to soup kitchens and food pantries across New Jersey. 

With knees digging into the dirt and hands caked in soil, it certainly wasn’t pretty work, and it certainly was a first for the Taiwanese volunteers hailing from a bustling metropolis. Nevertheless, both New Jersey and Taiwan endured before heading off to the Table of Hope, a soup kitchen and community aid organization in Morristown. 

The volunteers divided themselves into two groups: one to fold utensils and napkins for the kitchen’s nearly 100 daily patrons, while the others packed school bags with pre-made school kits for the county’s incoming elementary schoolers. All in all, 772 backpacks were filled and nearly 1,000 utensil sets were created一not bad for a day’s work. 

An equally bustling Tuesday awaited the young volunteers, however. A charter bus awaited the armada of orange youths for a trip to Jersey City, where a very special trip awaited them: a visit to the office of New Jersey Senator Andy Kim. 

While the senator was not there to greet the volunteers in person, a representative of the office, Leonardo Fuentes, was there to welcome the organization and gave them the space for a chat. In a simple but thorough conversation in the office’s conference room, each of the club’s members shared their volunteering stories with Fuentes, giving insight as to why they chose to volunteer and what exactly it means to them. They shared their experiences at the farm and soup kitchen from the day before, and how volunteering has changed with the recent budget cuts from the Trump administration. 

One point brought up by the members was the discontinuation of the Presidential Volunteer Service Award, or PVSA. IMPACT Youth Club had been a PVSA organization since its early years, and it served as a significant motivator for gathering new members and bolstering the organization’s reputation. While its volunteers made it clear that they will continue their work regardless of recognition, they made their concerns over what this would mean for future efforts clear. 

A bus ride to Sandy Hook Beach in Middletown was next for the club, where the volunteers were able to swiftly gather seven trash bags of litter from the beach’s shores. 

After a day of rest, the IMPACT Youth Club returned to make their final stop of the trip at the Bristol Assisted Living Center at Somerset. Here was where the organization would return to its roots: musical performances. With a nine-person program, made up of pianists, violinists, and a flute player, and an authentic Taiwanese puppet show to finish with flair, the concert was a heartwarming way to top off a meaningful week.

The Taiwanese members would fly back home soon after, but this by no means was the end of IMPACT Youth Club’s volunteering efforts. With the school year gearing up soon for both branches, it would be difficult for the teenagers to find time in their busy schedules, but that doesn’t deter them in the slightest. 

IMPACT Youth Club is looking forward to a fulfilling and exciting 2025-2026 volunteering season, both here in New Jersey and around the world.