Wittenberg students passed on their light to pups and pops as they participated in the Residence Hall Association’s (RHA) Day of Service on Saturday Mach 29.
A campus-wide email was sent to students a week prior to the service event giving students the opportunity to volunteer for three hours each at either or both the Forest Glen Nursing Home and the Humane Society Serving Clark County, two local organizations in the Springfield community.
“Members of RHA voted and decided that the service day would be a pretty good way for our small organization to give back to the local community in a way that involved time, rather than money,” said sophomore Devin Kinney, secretary of RHA.
Several freshman RHA members also said that the philanthropy service event would expose students to different community service options, allowing them to make an informed decision when selecting their community service location.
The service day event was held as RHA’s monthly program, and although RHA has put on philanthropy-based programs in the past by sponsoring or donating money to local organizations, this was the first time since Kinney has been a part of RHA that the group was able to be directly involved with the local organizations.
Planning for the event began in January as RHA members worked with the nursing home and the humane society to set up service activities and to register Wittenberg students for the event. RHA also achieved its goal of having at least 25 students volunteer for the event, according to Kinney.
“The opportunity to help those in need was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss,” said sophomore Curtis Makela, who participated in the Day of Service.
The first service day event at Forest Glen Nursing Home was held from 9 a.m. to noon. In addition to mingling with the residents, students passed out the nursing home calendars and newsletters to residents, participated in various activities with the residents such as ‘News and Coffee,’ and helped serve lunch to residents.
Several students who volunteered at the nursing home said that the most enjoyable part was connecting with the assisted living residents, especially those residents who were either alumni or previous faculty of Wittenberg University.
“My favorite part of working at Forest Glen was learning about the different people and the experiences they’ve had in their lives,” said freshman Angelique Gabrielle.
The second and final service day event at the Humane Society Serving Clark County was held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and although students did not work directly with the animals, they helped the society with a predetermined organization project.
