While Saturday mornings may be used for sleeping in, some students use the early hours to try to make an impact in their community. This Saturday, September 10, student volunteers will be giving back to Biscayne Bay Campus on the University’s 9-11 Day of Service sponsored by the Center for Leadership & Service.
The Day of Service will be held in the Wolfe University Center’s Panther Square. Students will begin to register at 8 am if they are coming from MMC and then board the shuttle to arrive at BBC by 9 am. Students at BBC will begin registering at 8:30. Breakfast will be served to participants from 9 to 10 a.m. After some videos are shown, students who participated at the site of 9/11 ten years ago will be connecting with the participants.
From there, students will be broken off into groups, and for two hours, they will be collecting mangrove seeds the that fell and were not rooted, pulling up evasive plants, and cleaning up residue along the Bay’s shoreline. After this, lunch will be served and students will get an opportunity to reflect on their day, speak of their experience out cleaning together and of any strange items that they may have found along the shore.
Sabrena O’ Keefe, Assistant Director of Women’s Center and Center for Leadership & Service, wants participating students to reflect on their values, the events of 9/11, and how their lives have been affected since that day ten years ago. According to O’ Keefe, around 250 students have signed up thus far.
“It is a day for us all to look back on and how it affected us as we all had a reaction to it and to realize how this changed the history and course of our country,” O’ Keefe said.
Jennifer Grimm, the Environmental Coordinator in School of the Environment, Arts & Society (SEAS), has coordinated the entire environmental aspect of the event. According to Grimm, Mangroves are an endangered species and their goal is to replant them in certain areas around BBC and in Oleta River State Park.
Also in attendance will be members of alternativeBreaks, a network that started fifteen years ago that encourages students to examine a social issue and utilize their break to help out not just in Miami, but all over the world.
Applicants for aB were asked to participate in the Day of Service as committing to volunteer is the core of aB projects and for them to get a taste of what they will be doing and to determine whether they are willing to work in a team.
Chrystelle Edma, a sophomore public relations major and Director of aB at BBC hopes all participating students will become more conscientiousness citizens, ask why, and to come back and volunteer again. According to Edma, when anyone decides to volunteer, they give a little of their time and life and that is a big step.
“When I participated in my first aB trip to Nicaragua, it was an eye opening experience because there are many issues in the world and that one little thing you do can make a big difference,” Edma said.
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