March 28, 2024

A Night of Giving, a service-oriented event, combines two components: the Wittenberg motto and the holiday season, according to senior Kayla Villegas, class of 2016 president.
nog4“It’s the time of the year when we tend to think less of ourselves and more about how we can help our fellow friends and community,” Villegas said. “And, what better way to do just that than by tying in our mission by passing our light on to others through small service projects.”
The event, put on by Common Ground, Wittenberg’s umbrella campus ministries organization, called for student organizations to facilitate mini-service projects for students to complete, according to Night of Giving coordinator, Heath Queen, ’16.
The projects will then be passed on to different groups in the community, Queen said.
“[The event] is something that Common Ground does every year to both get students’ minds off of finals and to allow students to be involved in service to others and be able to make an impact in some small way,” Queen said.
Although the event has been put on in years past, Queen said that this year, there has been more involvement on the part of student organizations.nog2
“Night of Giving was really special to me because it was a chance for me as well as the rest of the campus to show how much we love and appreciate our friends, faculty, staff, troops overseas and so many other people,” said Maddie Weber, ‘17, Common Ground participant. “I loved being able to give back and show love and support to so many people.”
nog_5Organization presidents were contacted about two months prior to the event and asked if they would like to participate and contribute to the event in some way, according to Queen.
“Each organization comes up with their own projects in their own sphere of influence because each group kind of has its own specialization,” Queen said.
Some of the service projects included in the event were blanket making for the Interfaith Hospitality Network put on by Weaver Chapel Association, braille ornament making for the Ohio State School for the Blind put on by Delta Gamma and letter writing to soldiers, nursing home residents and Wittenberg staff, which were put on by Operation K, Ivy Ring and Common Ground, respectively.
Overall, the event yielded 201 cards and letters, 83 knots on two blankets, 26 signatures on a refugee protection petition, 25 collected tips for finals, 45 origami gift boxes, 41 braille ornaments and over 4,000 grains of donated rice.
The event was held on Dec. 3 from 6-8 p.m. in Geil Lounge.

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