Why I do Community Servce (and why you should too)

I love the community service work I do (which is why I write about it so much on this blog). Last weekend was CACTUS Annual Field Day Event and the first Community Service Semi-Formal, and both reminded me of why I do community service and how much I will miss the service community here at Tulane. So here is my list of top three reasons I do community service and why you should too.

Because you're helping out your community. What more of a reason could you want than that, right? The people in your community are the people that you interact with on a regular basis. Even if you don't realize it, their lives affect yours.

For me, I just want to make sure that the people around me are having the best quality of life that they could have. And Field Day was a great example of that. We had about 200 elementary school kids running around Bruff quad with various activities set up for them to do, and they seemed to having the time of their lives. One kid even told one of our volunteers that he "was definitely going to come to Tulane because we had so much fun here." (No one had the heart to tell him we didn't jump around on bounce houses most days)

Face painting was a big hit at Field Day.

Hula-hooping was also quite popular.

Because you meet the best people. Some of my closest friends I have met through my community service work. One of my good friends, Seth, always tells the story of how he actually started doing community service because he wanted to meet girls as a freshman. I don't really know how well that panned out for him, but I think he would agree with me in saying that community service is a great way to meet great people

Adam and Lea are two people I probably wouldn't have met if not for service work. This is us all dressed up for the semi-formal.

Because it's fun and rewarding at the same time. So if you're not sold on helping the community and meeting great people, then let me assure you that community service is great because it's fun as well as personally rewarding. It's fun because you can always find a form of service that meets your likes and interests. If you like animals, consider volunteering at an animal shelter. If you like kids like I do, maybe something like Field Day is your thing. It's also rewarding because you always leave at the end of the day knowing that you have done something to help someone else. And even Scrooge would attest to how good lending a hand to someone else is good for the soul.

Mike L. having fun playing football with the kids at Field Day

Cooper making a new friend while making fruit loop necklaces

Mike E. offering an origami flower to his new friend

Anyways, that's my pitch. Hopefully, I was able to convince you some. Bottom line: if you aren't already doing service, you should get out there and try it out. If you already are, keep on volunteering.