Delta Zeta sorority and Alpha Chi Rho fraternity held their first annual Glow Walk event on September 23, 2014. The Glow Walk was an optional walk or run around the Stockton track field during the evening, to help raise money for their philanthropy. To participate, a minimum of a five-dollar donation was required. After ever lap completed, participants received a glow stick; the more you walked or ran the more glow sticks you collected. The fraternity and sorority that held this event had snacks, music and a very fun atmosphere. Together, the fraternity and sorority raised over $2,000 for the NJ Hearing Aid Project and The American Cancer Society.

Many of my family members have passed away from cancer, so when I heard about the event, I was thrilled to be a part of it. I invited many of my friends from my residential hall to participate along with me, and they were also very excited. While walking around the track and listening to upbeat music, my friends and I shared many laughs and fun memories of the night. Collecting the glow sticks was a fun idea to encourage participants to continue walking. Since the event was held at night, the track was completely lit up with neon colors, making it a fantastic sight to see. My friends and I collected as many glow sticks as we could and made them into bracelets, necklaces, and headbands, which also encouraged us to continue walking. Time flew by as we were having fun and at the end of the event, which lasted several hours, my friends and I collected over fifty glow sticks.

Overall, I had a great time donating my time, money and support to Delta Zeta and Alpha Chi Rho’s philanthropy of the NJ Hearing Aid Project and the American Cancer Society. The event had a fun filled atmosphere and a great turn out. I look forward to attending the event next year and hope to see the sorority and fraternity raise even more money than this year.

On September 17^th, 2014, I volunteered for the Red Cross Blood Drive at Stockton’s, “Big Blue” gymnasium. At this one-time event, from 2 to 3 pm, it was my job to greet, sign people in at the front desk, and confirm and book appointments. Everyone who worked at the Blood Drive was compassionate, friendly, and ready to assist donators. The gymnasium was set up with a dozen blood-drawing stations, a waiting area, and a snack bar. Throughout the hour there was a constant flow of students donating blood, and every station was full of people.

It was a wonderful experience helping those who were donating because I was exited to assist those who were assisting others. I felt a great sense of connectedness to those who were donating blood and working the drive because we were all there for the same reason, to help others. Since I was a young child, I have always been afraid of seeing blood and needles; so being able to help the cause without being pricked by a needle was a win-win situation. However, next year at the blood drive I plan to conquer my fear and donate blood to further extend my service those in need.

The saying, “time flies when you’re having fun” was completely true during my hour of volunteering. I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent helping the Red Cross Blood Drive service program and only wished I signed up for more than one shift. The feeling I sensed while helping others without expecting to receive anything in return was a feeling I found to be like no other. After leaving the gymnasium, I felt uplifted, like I made the biggest difference in the world, even though what I did was miniscule in comparison to many other community service events. However, community service will always play a large role in my life in college and beyond.

For my first honors service project I participated in the 11^th Annual Day of Service at Stockton College. On Saturday, September 6^th of 2014, I assisted the Water Watch club in a campus clean up. This service project consisted of approximately thirty students who split up into several groups to efficiently clean up different parts of campus with the materials provided by the club. All the groups were energetic and motivated to leave the campus spotless by the end of our project. At the end of the day as we took one last look around campus, we felt a sense of pride when we realized all our hard work paid off.

The most popular form of litter on campus was cigarette butts. After the Water Watch groups completed the clean up, we held a discussion to pose ideas on how we can minimize the amount of cigarette butts around our school. One solution we proposed was providing more smoker outposts around the school. Even though we do not want to promote smoking anywhere else besides the designated gazebos, we feel it would tremendously reduce the amount of litter if there were more outposts to discard cigarette butts. We also came up with the idea of posters and advertisements reminding students to properly throw out their cigarette butts and facts about the negative effects cigarette butt litter has on the environment.

Overall, the campus clean up was very productive, enjoyable and rewarding. Thanks in part due to the Day of Service, my love and interest in the environment has deepened. The sense of pride and joy I felt after cleaning my campus has lead me to continue my service by fully joining the Water Watch organization to participate in more campus clean ups and other activities to further express my love for my Stockton community.