By THERESA TAYLOR
Contributing Writer
This past Saturday approximately 600 students took buses to over 50 local destinations for Reach Out Saint Rose. “It’s a big organizational endeavor, so it’s really wonderful when it’s successful,” said Joan Horgan, Director of Campus Ministry and Reach Out Saint Rose organizer, who began planning the annual event in March and April.
Reach Out Saint Rose started 15 years ago, when a student brought the idea back from her campus to Saint Rose and asked people what they thought of it. Back then, it was 80 to 100
students going out to ten places in their community for a day of service. Ten years ago, Saint Rose quadrupled its efforts to expand the event, recruiting more and more students each year, and gathering their input as to what kinds of projects they would like to do.
“I think it’s nice for the students to see that they’re part of a larger community that’s doing this thing. It’s getting up on a Saturday, being inconvenienced, doing things that are kind of behind the scenes and often not that glamorous or fun.” And the fact that, “they’re
willing to put in their time like that really shows the ultimate fulfillment of the mission of this college,” said Horgan.
Generous donations from the Troy Savings Bank as well as Fred Thompson and his wife, combined with matching donations from General Electric, have supported Saint Rose’s efforts to expand the service effort further. These donations have financed the buying of tools, which has allowed students to participate in community painting jobs as well as flood relief work. The Saint Rose tradition of giving back has clearly struck a chord with student volunteers.
“I feel today was really awesome,” said freshman David Genender, adding that, “I didn’t know what to expect coming in.” Genender helped clean up the outdoor areas surrounding the HAC (Homeless Action Committee) community residence. “I’m really glad I did it,” he said. “I was about to not do it, but (it was a) wise choice to do it. I was really happy. The people were very nice and I just feel good about myself.”
Helping Genender spruce up the area was Saint Rose junior and social work major Katrina Filippidou , a non-traditional student who originally hails from Greece. “It’s been a wonderful giving day for us,” said Filippidou, “but we got a lot more back.” Her group was able to “meet a couple of people at the shelter, very nice people as far as the residents… and the person who was in charge was very helpful,” giving Filippidou’s group a lot of information about the program they were helping. “We’re very glad to be doing a little bit of cleaning around the area,” she said as she sorted recyclable materials.
This year, a large group of students, approximately 30, went to the Lasko Farm in the village of Middleburgh, in Schoharie to help with clean-up of debris from Hurricane Irene. Sophomore Chris Surprenant was involved in the clean-up process.
“We all divided up into several different groups to help clean up various areas of the farm. My group in particular was in the cornfields, cleaning up lots of plastic crop wrap. During the flood, it had been washed away from other areas of the farm, and was wrapped around many trees and telephone poles. That took a lot of time to get through, with all the cutting and pulling. The fields themselves were still soaking wet. The moment we set foot in them, we were up to our ankles in mud, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The further out we got, the wetter, the more unstable the ground became. Before we knew it, we were all covered in mud from head to toe looking like Swamp Thing.
The small creek that ran along the perimeter of the farm was also overflowing, making the ground even more unstable to walk on. By the end of the day, I was caked in mud, along with everyone else, and smelled not so nice. In all though, we had a really good time helping those folks out. They still have A LOT of work to do. It felt like we hadn’t even made a dent. It felt really good to know that even the smallest amount of help was appreciated by the family. Getting down and dirty suddenly didn’t matter anymore.”
Justin Wilkes, who is in his final year of the five year BS/MBA program, joined members of his residence hall in volunteering at the Regional Food Bank Farm. Wilkes’ group “picked a bunch of tomatoes and some collard greens and just helped them get ready and finish up the harvest. It was meaningful for me because I just enjoy helping the community in any way possible.” This Reach Out Saint Rose day had a very special meaning for Wilkes as this would be his last one here as a student. “I am going to miss it next year,” he said. “I really enjoyed it and I think that everybody should participate in Reach Out Saint Rose for the entirety of their Saint Rose tenure.”
Junior Gerald Moore, an accounting major, said the day was “Great. I got to work with my colleagues in a community garden; we were picking potatoes and helping out with the vegetation.”
Senior and social work major Akienyalay Bruce went to Albany High School, where she helped replenish the courtyard. Her favorite part of the day was working with an Albany High freshman who was “an expert planter.” He was able to teach Bruce’s group as much they “gave back to him.”
After finishing their service projects and working up an appetite, students returned to the gym to find thousands of slices of pizza waiting for them, along with cool beverages and cookies.
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