9/11 Day of Service

By: Olivia Varner

Our 9/11 Day of Service is part of a more extensive national day of service from the non-profit 9/11 Day, which was founded to make this day a way to promote unity and community on— or close enough to— the day the attacks happened. Around the time of the 20th anniversary, Sophia Stabley, Director of Community Service and Involvement at Lycoming College, thought it would be a good idea to start this event since she had already partnered with this organization when she was a part of AmeriCorps. As she said, "every little thing counts so much." Lycoming College is the only Liberal Arts College to be officially partnered with this organization. Last year there were 75 students who participated, with a total of 223 hours of service. This year, 83 students participated.

On Saturday, September 10th, from 9:15 am until 2 pm, many students went into the community and performed various service projects. Today was not just a day for students to serve one place but eleven different organizations. Those organizations we partnered with included: the Alliance House, the Factory Works Photo Lab, Sojourner Truth Ministries, the Christ Episcopal Church, Transitional Living Centers Inc., Salvation Army's Community Garden, Rider Park, the New Covenant United Church of Christ, the Department of Recreation, YMCA, YWCA, and the SPCA.

One of the eleven service projects was held at Rider Park this year. Volunteers helped with weeding, replanting trees, and replacing the other trees' stakes and tree tubes. Even though only six of us signed up for this site and we had to do a good bit of physical labor in the direct sunshine, in the end, all of us had fun. Doing this work helped us appreciate how much people put into bettering the environment and the community in general. "…It was great," one student said, "I felt like I did more for the community today." This group was not the only one that had a great time. "I saw true joy at every site I went to," said Sofia Stabley, "I was very proud and thankful for everyone who participated." Not only was Sofia grateful, but so were the organizations— and people around the community— that everyone went to. Sofia closed the interview with this remark: "Today, we really fostered the energy of what it means to be a Lycoming Warrior."