“I Will” Weekend of Service
For the past few years, Vanderbilt has sponsored a weekend of service in honor of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Organizations set up events in the Nashville community to help others and students all across campus sign up to join (even if they aren’t in that organization). This year, Vanderbilt titled the whole project as the “I Will” Weekend of Service, and posed the question: “What will you do to make a difference this year?” The activities last weekend were definitely a start to making a difference, but hopefully students continue to serve others as the year progresses.
This year, I helped plan the service event for Big Brothers Big Sisters (which I love blogging about). Over the past few weeks, we crafted cards with our littles to give to residents at a nursing home nearby. On Saturday, a bunch of Vandy Bigs delivered the cards and hung out with the residents for a few hours. We decorated wreaths to hang in the common areas, learned a new card game, and even played Apples to Apples. I loved hearing everyone’s stories about how they ended up in Nashville (and how many grandkids they had) and the residents were so appreciative, even though all we did was hang out with them for a few hours.
A few hours later I got to hear about the American Red Cross service project that my roommate Deanna participated in (and Nathan organized I think!). They sorted medical supplies in a factory and I know Deanna thought it was really interesting. The rest of the service events were listed on Anchor Link and I’m proud so many organizations (over 35!) took on the challenge of trying to make a difference this year.