On September 6th I attended the 11th annual Day of Service. The Day of Service hosts a variety of different charities and other groups that are committed to helping the community. You were able to choose if you wanted to get involved with a service project that was either on or off campus. There was over five-hundred students who volunteered their time for the Day of Service. It was so great to see how many college students want to be involved in their community and help out, even if they only do service one day a semester.
The service project my friends and I chose was the Shore Ministries Thrift Shops, one in Galloway and one in Northfield. My roommate and I were separated from our three other friends and we went to help out at the Galloway site. We helped out from 9 am to about 1 pm and it felt really good to help the lady out. She was the only person who was working at that site so not only did we help her organize and clean the store, but we also helped her sell items to customers. I could tell that running the store alone was most likely very overwhelming and that is probably why it was so unorganized.
The thrift shops are owned by the Shore Ministries which is a church group. The thrift shops began first as a place to store items that were donated to the church until the church decided that selling the donations was a good way to raise money. The people who ran the Northfield store had shared this information with the other members of our group. I think that thrift stores are a great idea because you can sell clothes and other items to less privileged people at a much lower price, especially for items in such good quality.
Working at the thrift shop for the 11th Annual Day of Service felt very rewarding. It was a very unusual service project but it was very interesting and we found a lot of interesting items in the store. There were many more service projects to pick from and I definitely think I will attend the Day of Service every time it’s held for the next four years that I will be attending Stockton. If you haven’t attended a Day of Service yet, you should, because it’s very rewarding and a good way to volunteer for your community. The event is held by the Office of Student Development and they hold them once every semester. There are also many different types of Days of Service that are held throughout the year and those are always good to attend as well. Any way to make contribution to your community through volunteering is a good one.