Whose Line is it Anyway?

By Lauren Roesch

            On October 29 2014, I went to Whose Line is it Anyway? with some of my friends.  The theater club puts on Whose Line multiple times a semester; this was the third or fourth show so far.  It is an improvisational comedy show where the actors make up everything on the spot with suggestions from the audience.  In front of the theatre, the actors put out a few buckets, one for each of the skits they do throughout the show.  Each bucket has directions or a label of the skit so patrons can write their suggestions or lines to use in the show.

This show started out even more interestingly than usual because there was a special guest in the audience.  My group of friends and I walked into the theatre and chose our seats, and as I was about to sit down, I noticed the special guest: a Taylor Swift cut-out sitting in the front row.  It was my Taylor Swift cut-out, that I had gotten from my work.  Apparently some of my friends had taken Taylor on an adventure that ended at Whose Line, and everyone seemed to be having fun with her.   She even went up on stage with some of the actors and they took pictures with her.  Everyone got a good laugh out of it and it was a great way to kill time before the show started!

Eventually the excitement around Taylor Swift being in the audience died down and the show started.  The skits played out in the usual order.  The actors played the Alphabet Game, where they went back and forth starting their line with the next letter in the alphabet.  Then, they picked two people from the audience to play the Question Game, which is when all the actors and their two guests stand in a line and the front two go head to head asking only questions.  The person who does not respond with a question goes to the back of the line, while the other person continues asking questions to the next person in line.  The theatre club also did a skit where they pull out suggested lines and say them randomly throughout the skit.  They ended the show with Helping Hands, which is when 2 people have 2 other people be their hands and they make “yummy” food with the ingredients in front of them.  It always ends in a mess and the audience in fits of giggles.  There are many more hilarious skits throughout the show and each one never fails to make the audience chuckle, giggle, or full out laugh.

One of my favorite things about the Whose Line is that everyone feels a sense of community for that one hour of comedy.  The shared laughter everyone feels bonds us all together.  And if you go multiple times, like I do because I love it so much, you start to recognize the other patrons.  Usually the same people go each time and they bring a few new guests with them because they want to expose their friends to the fun show.  I made sure I brought two of my commuter friends who usually are home by the time the show starts; I wanted to share the joy I feel when I go to the show.  It’s not really just show; it’s an experience that everyone should have at least once.

Atlantic County Animal Shelter

As a part of the honors program, I was given the opportunity to volunteer at the Atlantic County Animal Shelter in Pleasantville on September 27.  It is a service project done once a semester, but we have the option to do it more often; the shelter is always looking for more volunteers.

When we arrived at the animal shelter, we were given consent forms to fill out and we introduced ourselves.  I told Terry, the volunteer director, that I had previously worked in a veterinary office, so she asked me to help in the feline infirmary.  My friend, Josh, offered to be my partner and we headed towards to back of the building where the sick cats were located.  Terry told us that the cats all had colds and were being treated for their illnesses; therefore they had to be kept away from the healthy cats.  Our job was to clean out each of the cages especially well since they tend to sneeze all over the cages. Once we finished cleaning, we were to feed them lunch.

Josh and I started by taking each kitten and moving them into holding cages while we cleaned their original cages.  We sprayed the cages with a mixture Terry gave us, we waited for 5 minutes, and then we wiped them down with water and dried them.  Next, we placed newspaper, a blanket, and a litter pan in each cage.  While we waited for the mixture to take effect, we played with the kittens and gave them love, since most of them did not come out of the cages very often. This was the best part because we were able to give the kittens attention that they do not normally receive, and we had fun because they liked to climb up our backs and run around the room, which was very entertaining.  Once we finished cleaning all sixteen of the cages, we scooped dry and wet food into their bowls, which my other friend Nancy came in to help us with.  We made an assembly line where Josh put in the dry food, I put in the wet food and water, and Nancy placed a bowl in every cage for the cats.  After we finished in the infirmary, we said good bye to the kittens and went to play outside with some of the dogs.  Again, it was really nice to give the dogs some attention and exercise; they jumped up and down and ran around the enclosed area.

Overall, I really enjoyed volunteering at the Atlantic County Animal Shelter.  I love animals and helping others, so this was a great opportunity for me.  I benefited from it not only because I felt good that I was helping others, but because it was extremely satisfying and entertaining to play with the kittens and see them run around having fun.  Moreover, I gained a sense of appreciation for the veterinarians that care for those animals every day; it took me and Josh about two and a half hours to clean sixteen cages, but the shelter has hundreds of animals that need to be cared for.  Because of the great experience and the impact it had on me, I definitely want to go back and help at the animal shelter again!

By: Lauren Roesch

The Day of Service

I attended Stockton’s 11^th annual Day of Service on September 6, 2014.  This is a one-time event that takes place each semester at the college with both on campus and off campus service projects that volunteers can sign up for.   These projects are designed to help not only Stockton, but the community around Stockton.  It is also a great opportunity for the student volunteers to appreciate their school, community, and their own hard work.

At the Day of Service, there were many events to choose from, such as Books without Borders, playing Bingo with the elderly patients at Bacharach Rehab, doing a clean-up around the college, and helping out at a horse ranch.  My friends and I decided that we wanted to all do an event together to make it more fun.  We chose to volunteer for Waterwatch, which is the clean-up around Stockton, because it had many spots that still needed to be filled and many of us had done clean-ups before.  We met up with everyone else who was doing the clean-up, split into groups of 10, and got our assignments.  My group was assigned to clean college walk and the area around the campus center.  We each took a trash bag and a pair of gloves and set off to clean up our campus.  We picked up may different types of litter, but the most common was cigarette butts; we found them mostly around the campus center, nowhere near a designated smoking area.  They were the most annoying thing to pick up because there were so many of them and they are so small.

Even though picking up the cigarette butts was annoying, overall I found the event enjoyable; I was with my friends, we played music and sang, and we helped make our school a better environment.  And I gained a better sense of appreciation for the school and keeping it clean.  When I see someone about to throw their trash on the ground, I remind them to throw it in a trashcan or I pick it up and throw it out myself.  I also value the hard work it took to clean up campus; it was a really hot day and everyone was sweating, but seeing the finished product made it all worthwhile.