If you've been on campus recently you know that it exploded with activity and energy the day students moved back. When the students arrived my schedule immediately picked up speed, which I'm grateful for becuase it means the students want to be involved with serving the community.
My focus over the last two or three weeks has been hammering out the details of the 9/11 Day of Service, which is all over this blog and hopefully all over Facebook (see aforementioned link). I have a list of confirmed projects, flyers hot off the press, and over a dozen students signed up before the biggest wave of advertisements even goes out.
Every few days I learn of more entire groups of students who want to help out. Freshmen businesss students, a floor of a dorm, and an academic club have all volunteered to give back the morning of 9/11.
All that to say-- quite frankly, I'm surprised that students are coming to me (and with such enthusiasm) instead of me going them. I thought I was going to have to pull teeth to have even decent attendance for the 9/11 Day of Service, not because I think students are self-centered, but because they have a life full of obligations to fulfill. The event has snowballed (in a good way) into something bigger than my organizational abilities and poster-making skills.
(Hip, hip, hooray!)
As many students as we've had express interest, today I added another community partner to the list of service opportunities for 9/11. Local women's shelter S.A.F.E. of Harnett County needs a couple rooms and a fence painted. I personally have never even seen a women's shelter (which I think is the idea), and I'm hoping because of circumstances that lead to being in a shelter, our students haven't either. I think painting at the shelter, as "minor" a job it is, will offer students a glimpse into life most Americans only see on Law and Order or CSI.
My hope for the 9/11 Day of Service is that it's the pebble in the lake that enacts a powerful and unstoppable ripple effect of service.
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