On Saturday, September 12, the Office of Service Learning hosted the twelfth annual Fall Day of Service. However, in this year’s event, the Day of Service committee decided to go in a different direction. All the attendees were divided into four teams: red, blue, green, and purple. Each team attended the same sessions but at different times. Since I was on the red team, I will tell the story according to the order I went in.
At the very beginning of the event, at 8 am, free breakfast, including donuts, muffins, and bagels, was served. Then, all the teams attended the opening session in the Campus Center event room. President Kesselman makes a welcome statement and thanks the students for coming. He also congratulates the faculty and students involved in the organization of the event. Then, keynote speaker Todd Bernstein came up to the stage and spoke about the importance of service and volunteering and how these can solve many of the country’s economic challenges.
After the opening session, the teams officially starting attending their assigned sessions. The red team first attended the “Hunger and Homelessness” session in the Campus Center Theater. A staff member from the Atlantic City “Covenant House,” Jennifer, spoke about the mission and goals of “Covenant House” which are to serve and care for homeless youths between the ages 18-21. Then, Stockton student Melissa spoke about the “Campus Kitchen,” and how they prepare or collect food from food banks and donate it to the needy people. Then Kaitlin, a staff member of “New Day Family Success Center” (a family service program) explained to us that the program’s mission is to help families in need and provide them with events and activities. Finally, a “Books Without Borders” member told us about this Stockton club and how they collect books and have fundraisers to donate the books to many countries in need around the globe. After that, we started sorting lots of books and packing them in boxes.
In the next session “Civics,” the red team went to the C/D Atrium and was split into smaller teams, and each team was given a different colored pipe cleaner: orange, purple, yellow, and green. I was given an orange one. My team first went to the computer lab to fill out a survey about the Supreme Court to help a Political Science professor with her research. After that, we gathered and discussed whether or not the death sentence should be in the law. Last but not least, Tara Ronda, a volunteer coordinator in “The Petey Greene Program,” described that this program is designed to tutor prisoners in prison classrooms, and that any of us is welcome to volunteer.
For the third session “Circle K & BWB,” the team went back to the event room. We watched a presentation on the “green dot” and “red dot” and what they mean. Then we answered a survey via text messages. The main message of this event was to address that if anyone sees someone else in danger, that person should take any kind of action to help.
The last session “Environment” was held in a classroom. First, Rick Dovey, the president of “ACUA” showed us a presentation about the company and how they help keep the community clean. Then, the Stockton club “Water Watch” showed us a presentation about the dangers of drinking from plastic water bottles because of the chemicals in them and how they affect us and spoke a little about Stockton’s sustainable farm.
At the end of the event, all the teams gathered in the event room to give their feedback about the event and of course, to get free T-shirts!
In my opinion, this event could have been much better if there were more volunteering projects rather than just lectures and presentations. However, my favorite session of the day was the “Hunger and Homelessness” session because it was the only session we actually did a volunteer project in. I strongly hope that the next Day of Service would be a better event.