Community Service Works

So the past two Spring Breaks at Northwest I have organized some service projects in my building that involved painting the floor hallway walls and stairwell walls. Last year the students and staff that volunteered was mainly from my building. It was a great experience to spend time with staff and students from my building and to really get to know them on a deeper level. It is amazing how much you don't really know about a person's life until you really stop and take the time to ask. The group of seven volunteers were closer after that week and they exceeded the department expectations by completing two floors of new paint when everybody thought they wouldn't even complete one floor.

This year for the spring break project I decided to take a different angle and open up the service to all students not knowing what responses I would get. There was some advertisements and a campus wide email to ask for volunteers. In all 20 students responded and surprisingly 12 of those responses were students who lived off campus. That was a shock to me as I would never expect students who moved off campus to come back and help out. The project this time was to repaint two 8-story stairwell walls and there was a significant larger crowd helping. Nonetheless, we completed the project in 2 1/2 days and people that did not know each other until this project worked together and actually grew friendships.

The whole reason for this blog is a quote from a senior who lives off campus. I found this status posted yesterday on his facebook and it stated this, "Spring Break 2011 has been awesome so far! I helped with a project on campus and met some new cool people! It was truly a rewarding experience and the Dieterich Hall stairway walls look pretty good now!"

Reading that quote made me realize why I do projects like these knowing that I could easily be taking it easy or going on vacation. Providing the opportunities for students to come together and help serve the campus community is the sole purpose of community service and that makes all the difference in the world.