The Stockton Day of Service on Saturday September 10, 2011 was sponsored by the Get Involved Club on campus.  This was a campus-wide event that occurs once every year as a Day of Service with a Reflection Barbeque afterwards.  Students are assigned to various service projects based on their interests, some of which include cleaning the Absecon Lighthouse or Lake Fred.

Some students, including Honors students, were assigned to the Absecon Lighthouse project.  This project consisted of weeding the grounds around the lighthouse, which were heavily covered.  Students also cleaned the lighthouse’s insides.  All of the stairs and landings were covered in a fine dirt layer, and the cleaning was very meticulous, for the paint and brick had to be preserved from deteriorating during the cleaning process.  The cleaning consisted of gently wiping a spot with a wet paper towel, then wiping it with a small amount of cleaner fluid, and letting it air dry.

The History majors were also given a treat.  The curator of the lighthouse’s museum inside gave History majors a special opportunity to look at and inventory a historical object.  The object was a pressed glass paperweight with a 1930s print of the lighthouse inside of it.  The student was taught how to inventory, what to look for when doing inventory, and what certain parts of the object were called.  This aspect of the Absecon Lighthouse project was used to open History majors up to the idea of museum work and internships.

All in all, I found this experience to truly amazing, for I was the only History major in my group to experience what a curator must do on a daily basis.  It also fills one with a sense of satisfaction when they can look out at those patches of ground without any weeds and know that the grounds are beautiful again.  This project opened up new doors to different service projects, different internship opportunities, and different jobs that I can have a career in with my history degree.  I definitely recommend the Day of Service to any other students in order to broaden their horizons and open their minds to new career and service opportunities.