Make A Difference Day was held on October 24th this year from 8am to 5pm. This was a national day of service. This year Stockton conducted three different service projects on make a difference day. The first was an indirect service off-campus event co-sponsored by Student Development & Political Engagement Project. Volunteers met at 8:00am in the Campus Center to make the trip to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The second  was a direct service off-campus co-sponsored by Stockton Water Watch and Clean Ocean Action. Volunteers for this service conducted a beach clean up in Atlantic City from 8:00am to 2pm. The third was a direct service on campus co-sponsored by Books Without Borders. Volunteers for this service met from 9:00am to 1pm to collect and organize donated books.

I personally volunteered for the third activity with Books Without Borders because I regularly attend their club meetings. Books Without Borders meets every Tuesday at 5pm in C103. Books Without Borders was created to address the concern for the lack of educational materials in third world countries. The club is composed of students, professors, and concerned citizens who believe in the power of education and equal opportunity for all. Over the past few years Books Without Borders has received many donations allowing us to nearly fill up our shipping container. On Make A Difference Day volunteers unloaded, organized, and repacked the donated books. The donated books are organized into general categories such as, biology, history, mathematics, non-fiction, fiction, etc. The books are then repackaged into new boxes which are then labeled with the category and number of books. After the books are repackaged, they are loaded into the shipping container. On Make a difference day volunteers made an assembly line to shuttle the books into the container.

This volunteer activity really encouraged collaboration and teamwork. We all had to work together to get the job done effectively. This activity also allowed volunteers to become better acquainted with the service learning office as their employees were present on campus and worked with us. Service learning workers helped drive the busses to and from the shipping container as well as helped us unload and reload the books. What I loved about this volunteer activity is that it was an on campus activity with an on campus organization which will allow volunteers and students to get involved in a long lasting service opportunity. On campus activities such as this will help build Stockton’s community and encourage them to continually engage in service.