As a member of the Occupational Therapy Club here at Stockton, several volunteer opportunities have been presented to me within the field I wish to pursue. Aside from volunteering directly with patients, the club has offered a variety of volunteer opportunities for students to take advantage of. Recently, we held a “used medical equipment drive” where we collected used walkers, canes, wheelchairs and various other pieces of medical equipment to be donated to Good Will. The future occupational therapists are a very passionate group of students on campus, and the program was a huge success! During the first few meetings, I took more of a back-seat approach to my involvement with the club. Looking to play a more active role, my friend and I volunteered to bake and table for the OT Club bake sale.

            To our surprise, the “good-old-fashioned bake sale” just isn’t what it used to be. In an age where students no longer carry cash because we have cards to electronically swipe for meals, many people passed our table by. Similarly, people are much more conscientious about what they eat nowadays, as it seems like everyone is  watching their figure more than generations past. What started out as an exciting prospect for raising money for the Red Cross soon turned into frustrating disappointment. My St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes didn’t bring much luck, and the majority of our beautiful array of desserts were given away for free at the end of the day. In fact, many of our donations came from passersby who did not necessarily want a cupcake, but wanted to help our cause and donated anyway.

            When discussing the bake sale at our last meeting, the club seemed to be in agreement that we were all a bit disappointed with the results. Although the student body and faculty were generally supportive and encouraging of our efforts, we had a difficult time actually selling them on our baked goods. Perhaps the age of bake sales has come and gone, and a fruit and veggie table would be more lucrative in the future?