The Saint Mary's Circle K Club gave students an opportunity to spend time serving others in an event called "Day of Service." From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, students from the College as well as nearby Penn High School gathered for the event in Rice Commons.
"The Day of Service is a way of bringing in-house projects to campus,” junior McKenzie Quinn, president of the Saint Mary's chapter of Circle K, said.
The date of this service opportunity was intentionally close to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“The campus has been trying to do something for the week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day for a very long time, and a service week is something they've also been wanting to” senior Princess Mae Visconde, the club’s vice president, said.
Commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and involving students in service projects were ideas that had been previously discussed by service organizations on campus, so combining them worked to accommodate previously existing goals, according to Visconde.
“This was the first time we’ve ever done an event like this,” Quinn said.
Students learned about the event from flyers posted around campus as well through promotionss from the OCSE-Office for Civic and Social Engagement.
“We reached out to our Circle K community, all the clubs in the area, along with the Penn High School Key Club and the Knute Rockne Kiwanis Club,” Quinn said.
As a service-based club, the Day of Service helped the club work on its mission with community partners but was also open to people not involved in Circle K.
“We want to do service projects that benefit a variety of organizations in the South Bend area,” Quinn said.
Upon entrance, attendees were given cards that informed them of the organizations to benefit from their service as well as encouragement to work on multiple projects during the time they spent at the event.
The Day of Service consisted of several different projects, such as making tie blankets for Our Lady of the Road and the Ronald McDonald House, bookmarks for the local school Madison STEAM Academy, nonslip socks for the Riley Children's Hospital and door decorations for the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
“The goal [of service] is to stop focusing so much on ourselves and turn toward other people. The Saint Mary’s community can help the South Bend community, and not just the South Bend community but all of Indiana,” freshman Carina Garza said.
Throughout the day, those in attendance moved between stations set up for the different projects such as adding nonslip material to socks, packing hygiene kits and making braided fabric dog toys.
Among the products of the day were more than 10 blankets, nearly 60 door decorations for Saint Mary’s Convent, 30 dog toys for South Bend Animal Care and Control and over 100 hygiene kits for the Center for the Homeless.
