Campus
River Clean up
The
organization that sponsored the event was the Center for Leadership and
Service. The mission of this center is to provide opportunities for leadership
development, community service involvement, service learning, campus
organizational development and volunteers activities. They are in charge to
create programs and activities as “Campus River Clean up” that prepare students
to be involved as positive models of leadership excellence and social
consciousness in a global community. Center for Leadership and Service works
and supports other organization that provide values to the society and to the
environment as American Rivers, which is an organization that engaged thousands
of volunteers to clean rivers across the country, covering more than 252,694
miles of waterways and removing more than 25 million pounds of litter and
debris. (americanrivers.org)
The
purpose of Campus River Clean up event was to help to restore our own community
body of water by removing litter and debris, by this way we can make a change
ensuring clean water supplies, revitalizing fish and wildlife habitat,
improving recreation and leave a legacy of cleans and healthy rivers for
generation. Also, with this event we can motivate others to take action to
improve our life and safe the environment. For instance, the reason of why I
chose this event was because I am a person who really care about the
environment, I believe that our planet and the place that we live is a gift and
we have to take care of it. I always worry about water consumption,
deforestation, pollution and other problems that our planet is facing, and if I
can do anything to help to stop or restore the environment, I will do it. When
I was looking for any community services, I had many options for socials event
but I was more interested in something that involve the environment because we
as humans and being the cause of these problems, we have to become aware of how
our actions is affecting our planet positive and negatively, and I chose to
take action that give positive effects to our planet by cleaning the river. Moreover,
something that motivated me more to choose this event is that according to
createthegood.org, millions of tons of trash end up in our nation’s rivers and
streams every year, so it contaminates your drinking water and it can threat
the life of all who depend on it, including humans and animals, because 65% of
the drinking water come from the river. With this event we not only think about
our lives but also about further generations.
What
happened on this event? First at all, the event occurred on April 22, 2016 (the
Earth’s Day celebration), at East Campus Kean University around 10:00 am to
2:00 pm, but we all volunteers have to arrive to the place at 9:30 am. When we
were at the meeting place we had to change our shoes and use boots, globes and
take a grabber. Then we had to divided into a group of 3 people but it was
optional, and just go into the river and all around the river to collect all
trash we could. We had two different bags, one for regular trash like plastics
bags, paper, and the other bag was for recycle, such as glass and bottle
waters. When we began to clean I thought that the river was not dirty, at
simple sight it looked clean but when we get into the river to clean I was
surprise of how much trash and how dirty it was, I could not believe it. There
were plastics bags for everywhere, bottle water, glasses, potatoes chip bags,
the water smelled super bad, we found dead animals (like a deer), it was
unbelievable, and just to think that it was in our zone where we spend most of
the time, our university. To continue with my contribution, I spent around two
hours cleaning, I recollected two bags of trash, and I put all my effort to
leave the whole area very clean which I think we achieved it.
Finally,
to attend to this event was very satisfactory for me because I can say that I was
participant in making positive changes to our planet at least with a minimal
action as cleaning the river. I enjoyed it so much, for me it was fun, healthy,
and the most important is that we are providing values to the society and the
environment. I think we have to inspire other to do the same, tell to everybody
how great this experience is and how important is for all us. I extremely
recommend to participate in activities like this, increase the group of
volunteers and I also think that we, as sustainability class, should create our
own activity that can benefits the society and the environment.
YMCA Garden
Gabriella St.Fleur
For my community earth day project, I decided to contribute locally. I currently work at the YMCA in Metuchen New Jersey as an after school care counselor, the YMCA is a non-profit organization that sponsors many different programs and activities, People also donate their time and money to create a loving and caring environment. The YMCA is an organization that is very close to me, I love how connected there are globally, I hope to someday be the CEO. A few of the employees at my location started a garden in the front yard of the building about 2 years ago. It started out as something so small with a few herbs and a lemon tree, since then we have expanded and added more to our collection, we love the feedback from the community and love to please them in the long run. The garden has been a great contribution the not only members of the YMCA, but also members of the local community. People have the chance to come view the crops and actually take fresh food home. We take the time and spend the money to make it as perfect as we can. I think local restaurants should actually partner up with us to get some of their produce locally to make themselves more sustainable.
We also spend the time teaching them about how to take care of their earth. We teach them how to
save water and how to recycle, starting these habits at a young age becomes very beneficial to them and the rest of the world in the long run. As the weather gets nicer we take the children outside and they love doing little projects like picking up trash or just enjoying the scenery. I believe my contribution to the garden made a change, I believe that taking part in Earth Day is just a start, if we all take the time to give back just a little everyday, we will gradually see some change.
Robert Swan said, “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it” If that doesn’t make you want to be involved nothing else will. This is our planet; we should want nothing but the best for it. We want to breathe clean air; we want to have fresh drinking water. Protecting our planet starts at home. The smallest things could make the biggest impact. Whether it is picking up a piece of trash from the ground, or remembering to put your plastic bottles in the blue tin. Only we have the power to change the world for the better.
Ashley FieldStrut For A Cause Vashti School For Future Leaders
Last year on the campus of Kean
University, I founded a business organization entitled “Kean Women Of
Excellence”. Kean Women of Excellence is geared towards assisting college women
obtain their future goals though networking, resume building, personal etiquette
and leadership development. The organization impacted the Kean community by
hosting professional seminars, leading college tours, providing internship
opportunities, and most importantly uniting the women on Kean University’s
campus.
Aside from impacting the Kean University
community we've also developed relationships off campus with the boys and girls
club, the YMCA, central high school, New City Kids, young Women with Purpose
and last but not least the Vashti school for future leaders. This year I was
granted the opportunity to collaborate with the young ladies from the Vashti
School for Future Leaders. This organization is dear to my heart because they
are dedicated to grooming young teenage girls into become successful women
within the Newark community.
The Vashti School helps young girls from
inner city communities understand the importance of self-respect, build their
self-esteem and guide them with getting ready for college. The organization
meets every Saturday afternoon with their mentors (including myself) and they
get the chance to ask for advice, help or just have “girl chat”. The group totals about ten girls both high
school and grammar school students who parents put them in the program to make sure
they have extracurricular activities.
During the entire semester I have been
organizing and directing a charity hair show in honor of the organization. The
goal of the charity hair show was to donate money to the Vashti School so that
they can improve the organization. I searched for models at Kean University who
were willing to donate their time and talent, then I looked for sponsors to
endorse the event. I received funding to order food, wigs, and decorations for
the show. I also reached out to local photographers and DJs to see if they were
willing to help such a great cause for the Newark community. I even contacted a
local band to perform at the charity show for entertainment. Putting the show
together made the director of the organization Ms. Nicole excited, and honored
that I thought about them when it was time to pick an organization to donate
to. I believe that my feelings for the show can be compared to an emotional
rollercoaster. This was the last event that I would be planning on campus which
bought sadness to my heart, but I was excited for the models and knowing all of
my hard work would pay off however it was a humbling experience. Knowing that
my small contribution can help change the lives of young girls in inner cities
(just like I was) made me feel accomplished and motivated. With all of the
money I donated to the organization they were going to use it to develop an
established college readiness program. I worked long hours with the models to
make sure the show was a success and entertaining but I never lost sight of the
main cause. I consider this the best service project I’ve done because I got a
crowd of three hundred and sixty people to come out and support. If I could do
it all over again I would because the impact I left on the young women from the
Vashti School For Future Leaders was amazing.
The show was April 20,2016.
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