Josh Falcone – News Editor
Southern Connecticut State University has upheld a long tradition of reaching out and helping the community, from the Adopt-a-Family Food Drive to Friends of Rudolph to the SCSU Service Team, giving back is greatly promoted.
This habit continued last week when the university took part in the Connecticut Public Colleges and Universities Make a Difference Week.
The community service activities culminated in, “National Make a Difference Day” on Oct. 25. This year Southern held three events during the weeklong program.
All last week, the university was collected used cleats at both Judicial Affairs and Moore Field House.
According to First Year Experience Instructor and assistant in the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs Dawn Cathey, the cleats will be donated to IRIS-Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services.
“The cleats are going to be donated to IRIS Agency for refugee families coming that find their comfort in playing soccer,” Cathey said.
On Tuesday Oct. 21, the Service Commission, First Year Experience, the Office of Student Life, and the Office of Academic Affairs held the second event for Make a Difference Week in the Adanti Ballroom with the Service Expo.
The expo invited the campus community to come to the Ballroom and take part in various service projects. Wexler-Grant Community School and King/Robinson Interdistrict Magnet School, two area elementary schools, also attended the event.
According to Cathey, the kids from Wexler-Grant are buddied with her Inquiry class.
“Every freshman here, we have 44 freshman, they all have a buddy from Wexler Grant, so these buddies are doing service projects with their Southern buddy,” Cathey said
Maeve Kirby, AmeriCorps VISTA for the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs said one goal of the expo event was to include even more of the campus community.
“We opened it up so we can get the targeted audience, the non-traditional students, the commuter students and what not,” she said.
Kirby said the plan to have the expo on campus was part of a come and do what you can approach.
“This idea came about because it is easier to keep students on campus, so I’ve been working on the mentality of come when you can, do what you can, whenever you can, however you can,” she said.
The goal was to address different needs within the community, Kirby said
“We have different organizations sponsoring different projects, so the Service Commission is doing the dog toys out of the recycled t-shirts, and Dawn Cathy’s INQ class is sponsoring the centerpieces for Thanksgiving meals at both IRIS and the community soup kitchen down on Broadway,” she said. “We have a RA from Schwartz Hall doing hall decorations, Thanksgiving and fall decorations for a medical center.”
In addition to the dog toys, centerpieces and decorations, Kirby said there were also items for the local police and sentiment cards.
“We have more fleece blankets and different Halloween treats going to the New Haven Police department, so that when they are patrolling and they see someone in need or a group of kids that they can hand out a treat or give a blanket to keep warm in the winter,” she said. “Also we have ‘Welcome to America’ cards for new families being resettled through IRIS, and we have cards for the cancer patients staying at the Smilow Cancer Center.”
Above all, Kirby said, the Service Expo was about simple but moving acts.
“Smaller projects but I think of equal importance,” she said. “I’m all about showing people that they can make a difference no matter how small their action is, so this is kind of like an expo of small service projects making a big difference.”
In addition to the Service Expo, the Service Commission also showcased Southern’s commitment to community service during Admissions Open House Oct. 19.
“On Sunday, the Service Commission made fleece blankets as part of the Open House programming, so students could see that service is a part of Southern culture before they even get here,” Kirby said.
The third Make A Difference Week event was a project creating a walkway that was held on Oct. 25, Kirby said.
“Saturday we are going to be building a path that is going to connect Brookside Estates to their neighboring development, Rockview,” she said. “So that the kids can travel safer between the two and there is going to be a park there soon. The residents can bring the rent checks down to the main office in Brookside, right now they have no safe way of traveling unless they walk on the side of the road where there is no sidewalk.”
Kirby said there are plans to have a nature guide in the new walkway.
“The kids get to learn about nature and can learn about what is in their backyard.
They just started a unit on community service so this was kind of again, to show them how to address needs in the community and how to meet those needs,” she said.
Photo Credit: Derek Torrellas
