Day of Service Review

One event at Stockton University that attracts a diverse crowd is the Day of Service where all sorts of volunteers come together once a semester and not only spend the day working towards benefiting the community, but also are able to work on self-growth and improvement.

The 2016 Fall Day of Service was on September 10, 2016 from 8:30am – 4pm at Stockton and sponsored by Stockton. I, along with my friend, assumed the volunteering was strictly the cliché garbage-cleanup and fundraising that is more often than not associated with the word ‘service’. However, the event was divided into numerous activities that actually made the event enjoyable for the volunteer without eliminating any of the benefits for the community.

The beginning was nice, with breakfast served in the form of a lovely array of food. After everyone settled in and was divided into four groups to help with organization, the first section I attended was one to raise political awareness. I was critical at first, since I never equated politics with serving the community at all. The organizers of this event were knowledgeable, though, and I found that with interactive activities and thorough explanations that it is the individual’s duty to realize their right to vote and have say in the government, and therefore use it, especially young adults like myself. By gaining an understanding of young adults’ effect on politics, I realized that giving my say and voting is a small act of serving the community in and of itself.

My friend and I were also among the few people who signed up and were allowed to receive training from certified EMS workers, where we were taught how to give CPR and where certain resources were around the campus in varying cases of danger. I wish that this event was less of a closed opportunity and that all volunteers could have experienced it, but I was lucky enough to receive the fun and useful training.

The next event my group did was working at individual tables to complete various tasks like making cards for sick patients at hospitals, making craft packets for St. Jude’s children, and creating pillows for those in need. Seeing what small amounts of effort can make various people happy really made me thankful and gave me a new perspective. An even more direct form of service, however, was that with the Stop Hunger Now Organization that had the volunteers putting together bags of essential foods and vitamins for people around the world suffering from hunger. It was an excellent way to promote teamwork amongst the volunteers as well; teams of five were employed to create the bags. Four people were in charge of putting different parts of the bag together; one person was in charge of rice, another in charge of soy, and so on. The fifth person was the one holding the bag under the funnel and switching it out. At first, it was difficult to complete each bag of food and the group was slow, but after we got into a certain pattern it was really easy to complete each bag and we ended up working very quickly. At the end of the event, the entire volunteer population ended up making thousands of bags. This event really put the dangers of hunger into perspective, since hunger is not something most people who attend Stockton have to worry about. After this, there was a brief reflection session, where everyone agreed that the event was run very smoothly and professionally, and was an excellent way to impact the community and the world for the better.

Overall, the event was run very efficiently by the coordinators and everyone else involved. I enjoyed the event as both a volunteer and as an individual as I learned about issues both inside and outside of the community and how to help.