On Saturday September 6th, I attended Stockton’s Day of Service. For this event, breakfast was given in the morning, and then all of the participants were directed into the campus center event room at 8:00 am. Signs displaying the names of different organizations in need were posted at tables. Once inside, participants sat at the table corresponding with the organization he/she wanted to help with. I sat at the table for two local thrift shops. There were 6 available spots for people to sign up to go to the thrift shops; so three students went to each store. Everyone listened to Stockton’s President’s speech, and then we were off. With a bagged lunch in hand, the volunteers boarded the busses.
The bus ride was short. The driver was a Stockton maintenance employee, and he entertained us with facts about the college. First, he dropped off the chaperone and her three helpers, and shortly after he arrived at the thrift shop two other volunteers, our chaperone and I were assigned too. We went into the store at 10:30 am. The storeowner immediately gave us work to do. She requested the VCR tapes in the back of the store to be moved to the front, the little statues in the front to be moved to the back, and the baskets to be hung from the ceiling. We completed those tasks quickly, so the storeowner then asked us to individually decide what needed to be cleaned, moved, or organized and do that to make the shelves look more appealing. She was so grateful for something as simple as organizing shelves.
One volunteer organized all of the holiday decorations, another organized all of the children’s toys, and I organized the greeting cards. The store looked so much cleaner and orderly when we left, and the storeowner looked a lot happier.