Jessica Bolich

On October 13, 2016, Commuters on the Go sponsored the Afternoon of Service. Located in the Board of Trustees room, the service event appeared to be a smaller version of the Day of Service that was hosted towards the beginning of the semester. The Afternoon of Service began at 4:30 and lasted until about 6:00. It consisted of two parts: attendees working at service stations and a reflection session afterwards.

The Afternoon had three service stations; however, because of the turnout, some of the stations were spread across multiple tables. The first station consisted of making heart shaped baskets to give to elders living in nursing homes. The contents of some of the baskets included some small Mother’s day cards that were hand crafted by some of the students who came to the Afternoon of Service. At the second station, students sewed and stuffed teddy bears and heart-shaped pillows from pieces of colorful fabric. These gifts were created for young children afflicted with cancer. Students at the final station drew birthday cards for homeless families who could not afford to purchase cards or gifts for their children. The insides of the cards were left blank so the families could personalize the cards for their children.

The reflection session that followed the service was very powerful. The attendees were given three post-it notes and were instructed to write one thing on each of the notes: a person who was important to them, a thing that was important to them, and a trait that was important to them. After writing these things down, the participants were told to switch their post-it notes with somebody they did not know. They were then told to throw away one of the post-it notes before returning them to their original owners. This exercise was done to demonstrate the kinds of feelings people have when their important things are taken away from them, as with the groups for which the gifts were created. Although this service activity was not a part of a series of events, the participants were still able to help many people in need within a short span of time.