Saturday, September 12th I was reluctant to arise for a full day of service learning. Lacking sleep and motivation, as most college students are, I rolled out of bed for free breakfast. My buddies and I all joined the red team and waited anxiously to be informed as to what we would be accomplishing that day. After keynote speaker Todd Bernstein got us committed to participating in the activities we were assigned to aid Books Without Borders. In this segment we physically aided Books Without Borders in unloading, sorting, and repackaging books for donation. We were informed about their goal of donating recycled books to school libraries that are less fortunate than most. I eventually ended up signing up for the club at the Get Involved Fair.
Our next station is where I experienced service learning for the first time here at Stockton, or maybe in my life. Excepting to accomplish labor-based tasks I was caught off guard by the servicer learning portions of the day. However, after thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that service learning is more beneficial to the community than one-and-done volunteer opportunities. I could tell many people were bored by the lectures, but they didn’t understand that if everyone was informed of things, such as why it’s better to drink from a refillable container and not bottled water, or that they have to ability to impact their environment through speaking their opinion, writing letters to government officials, and voting, then no one would have to provide service hours as a special event. These services would be completed naturally by citizens if they were informed and motivated. For example, roadside cleanups would become less necessary if people converted to the use of refillable containers.
As an environmentalist I’ll admit that hearing from Water Watch and a representative from the sustainable farm were my favorite lectures. However, I also felt that the Green Dot spokesman was trying to teach an important message. That is that if oneis a bystander to an event, such as seeing someone pocket goods from a supermarket, or are witness to domestic abuse, it is the job of said bystander to speak up and take action. It may be hard to approach the situation without support of others to take a stand, but taking action can take many forms, such as calling the authorities, getting the attention of other bystanders, or intervening through rhetoric rather than physical contact. Unfortunately there are “red dots” out there, but the number of people who are bystanders and take action, or green dots, against this one person can make a huge difference.
Whether everyone at Day of Service enjoyed the service learning or not, we hope that they at least gained knowledge from it. Every bit of service learning helps; such as the bettering of one’s knowledge about drinking from a reusable water bottles. Day of Service helped to shape Stockton as a community. We all got to know more about one another and gained service opportunities. When this knowledge is put to work it will benefit our community as a whole