neat service projects

[thetygerlily]

My absolute favorite was back when Kappa's philanthropy was "Women Helping Women". My chapter was (and still is) involved in a local women's shelter, and we threw a Halloween party for the kids there in 2002. We had bobbing for apples, pin the tail on... something I don't remember!, coloring, a toilet paper mummy wrapping contest, food, etc. We all dressed up too. The kids had a blast, but the mom's reactions were the best. They were so overcome with seeing their kids have a normal night as children that several of them were close to (or in!) tears, and kept telling us how much it meant to them to see their kids actually enjoying themselves and just being kids. There's something to be said for giving someone a "normal" night during a difficult time. They did ask if they could keep the extra toilet paper though, so we felt kind of bad for wasting some on the mummy contest. Overall it was an awesome experience for everyone involved- and I will never forget it!

[OPhiAGinger]

We did a huge variety of projects including fundraising and environmental projects, but my two favorites both involved face-to-face interaction with the beneficiaries. To me, that's what generates the biggest feeling of accomplishment.

The first involved the whole chapter and benefitted the children who lived in my campus's married student housing. Our faculty advisor was also the advisor for the Married Students Housing Association, and she clued us in to the hardships that the kids living there often had to face while their parents finished their degree(s). All we did was put on a little afternoon Halloween carnival for them, but it was a huge treat to those kids! We just did stuff like face painting, pumpkin carving, three-legged races and other messy outdoorsy crafts and games. We sent them home with bags of Halloween candy and spiderwebs painted on their sweaty little faces, and we all felt great.

The second was much more intimate and involved just a handful of sisters at a time. (This actually happened after I graduated, but I heard so much about it that I felt like I was there.) My chapter adopted a nearby senior center and visited with them twice a week for a special project: to make a quilt. The senior ladies at the center were experienced quilters and we were novices, and that was exactly the point. The senior ladies were eager to share their knowledge of this American artform, and the collegiate women were happy to learn. Our sisters signed up for shifts in this ongoing project, and before long there was a big wait list for spots. It was really popular, and probably had a bigger impact on the collegiate women than the senior women. It was a wonderfully calm, zen-like bonding time between two widely separated generations of women, and my sisters learned a lot more than just quilting.