For the third year in a row, I helped organize my school’s annual Day of Service event. We had 900 participants this year! (To put it in perspective, last year there were 200…) It was a super awesome event and James, Matt, and Maranda got to volunteer at a church located near campus.
I’m still in shock at the sheer number of people that registered. We changed the sign up process this year so I was keeping an eye on the website in case there were any issues. As I saw the number getting larger and larger, I started to panic. I reached out to a bunch of community Facebook groups to find more places to send volunteers. We wound up sending them to 70+ places in the surrounding towns.
The morning of the event was absolutely chaos. James was incredibly helpful and came to school early with me to help set up. He wound up helping at the group leader table while I was inundated with unregistered volunteers at the waitlist table. Once the volunteers left campus for their sites, I had a moment to breathe and reflect on the day. I’ve already decided on some big changes that we’re making for 2020! I spent the rest of the morning walking around to the various sites in downtown Danbury (include the church where James and everyone was working!).
I’ve been volunteering on a regular basis since I was a kid and involved with Girl Scouts. After high school, I was able to do community service with my sorority and after college, I joined the Junior League in Pennsylvania. Now that I’m back in Connecticut, I’m about to join my town’s Community Service Club. North Face’s motto may be “Never Stop Exploring” but mine is more like “Never Stop Volunteering”!
Until our next adventure!
The Harkin Chronicles 