Service @ Campbell: César Chávez Day

This LA Times photo captures a moment of
friendship between Bobby Kennedy and Chavez
during Chavez's 25-day fast in 1960.

Most universities are powder kegs of ideas, untapped think tanks full of growing brains soaking up weeks worth of information in just one day. When a college campus gets a hold of an idea, big things can happen. Take Operation Inasmuch, for example.

The potential for our students to help

uncover an invisible population is why I was so thrilled yesterday to be one tiny part of César Chávez Day, in some states the César Chávez Day of Service and Learning.

The "invisible population" is the enormous community of farm workers we have in our immediate area, about 3,000 according to the NC Farmworkers Project. I say they're invisible because the rest of the population almost never sees them, nor do we recognize the work they do.

AmeriCorps SAFE member
Ahira Sanchez helped
organize Chavez Day.

The new phrase, "Got food? Thank a farm worker" rang true yesterday as we brought information about farm workers to the students via word of mouth and hand outs at the student center, and later in the day with a lecture on Chávez by Campbell professor Dr. Ann Ortiz. The night wouldn't have been complete without a heartfelt performance from Pablo Bautista y Hijos, a singing and guitar playing Honduran family with a farm working past.

We didn't have a stadium full of academics and social experts. We didn't even have small auditorium of farm worker advocates. We had a small dining room with a handful of students unsure what farm workers do, who Chávez was, or why they matter. But they showed up anyway to learn something, and that means the most. I hope they'll take the information they learned last night and keep it close to them, teaching their peers in the process.

You never know, maybe next year for Chávez Day we'll need an auditorium!

¡Sí se puede!