Community Service - Sayy What?

I've had so much fun planning and organizing the volunteer opportunities we have had thus far - I never really thought I would run into any trouble finding events, but I was surprised in February when I began having trouble getting something to be definite. Originally, Matt Ferguson and I had planned on working with a woman in Hoboken who does a lot of drives and multiple much needed things for the area. We had 3 different dates set - all of which seemed to fall through due to one reason or another. After a bit of frustration, Matt and I decided hey - February is a short month, let's bang out two events in March. With excitement and enthusiasm I worked hard to find something that would get the crew excited and something that a lot of us could participate in. I thought a miracle happened when Matt sent me a link for HoopsFest Event in Newark at the end of March - they needed a record breaking number of volunteers. However, before I could get a definite number of people signed up and organized to go, the event had filled up and they were no longer looking for people to help out. Disappointed and discouraged after hunting and hunting for anything to do to help, Matt and I again sat down to decide what we could definitely do. Here is what we came up with - 2 events in April and a fundraiser. So I am excited to announce our FINAL and DEFINITE community service events in April - We are hosting a blood drive on April 11th all day in the Student Center. Working with Blood Services has been great so far and I have a bunch of the crew signed up to come and help out with all we need. I hope we reach our goal of 40 donors! Also, on the 23rd of April we are doing an outdoor project with the Garden Club from New Jersey Old Towne Village which is a historic site in New Brunswick. We will be pulling weeds, planting flowers, and then spending some quality bonding time playing frizbee and flying kites. We will also be having a picnic :D

I am even more excited about our fundraiser - All semester we have had a charity tip jar that is collecting money so that we can buy children from New Brunswick Schools new school shirts. A lot of them only own one shirt and have to wear that shirt everyday of the week. We haven't raised as much money as we had hoped for so from now until the end of the semester we are asking customers if they would like to donate one dollar to the cause. The customer can then sign their name on a shirt that is hung up in the zone to recognize their generosity.

Keep checking in to find out how the events go!

--Ashley