Students Make a Difference, get involved
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Saturday was Make A Difference Day around the nation, and student organizations on Oakland University’s campus took part by doing community service activities in a plethora of ways.
Make A Difference Day is a national day of service started by the United Way and community service groups take part by cleaning, building, or just providing assistance to groups in need.
Tiffany Sims, from the office of Academic Service Learning, went to student organizations around campus and requested their participation in Make A Difference Day. She helped set up activities for the groups to take part in, ranging from building a playground at the Baldwin Center, doing yard work for seniors through the Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency, or helping to install benches at the Salvation Army Echo Grove Camp.
“My goal was just to get more students to volunteer,” Sims said.
Sims said that a lot of people in the community at large have a poor image of college students. She sees this as a way to change that.
“I think this is a great opportunity to get OU students into the community to show people they do care,” Sims said.
Students from OU’s Alternative Spring Break did service for Make A Difference Day by helping to paint, rake leaves, and clean the basement for the morning at the Grace Center for Hope. Jennifer Doptis, president of Alternative Spring Break, said they got involved so they could volunteer their time to make someone else’s lives a bit more comfortable.
“Our group met a lot of other volunteers who enjoyed being there just as much as we did,” Doptis said.
She said that they met other OU students working there as well. “Basically, we had a productive day filled with fun projects and fun people!”
OU’s newest fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi went to the Salvation Army Camp and helped them clean their flowerbeds and get ready for winter. President Ryan Gentry said that although it was a pretty dreary day, it was still a good experience.
“The guys got to get to know each other a little bit more throughout the morning,” Gentry said. “The camp director, Mark, was very nice, and couldn’t thank us enough for coming.”
Meanwhile, Phi Sigma Sigma was at the Baldwin Center, helping paint one of the rooms there. Phi Sigma Sigma member Amanda Kochanski said they all had a good time and were enjoying themselves. She said that some of the volunteers even started painting each other.
Later that day, they passed out candy to Pontiac area children through “Trunk-or-Treat.” Kochanski said because it’s too dangerous for kids to go trick-or-treating in Pontiac, children dressed up and came to the Baldwin Center to get candy by going from trunk to trunk of volunteers’ cars.
“We help out with the Baldwin Center so much, so we wanted to do this for them,” Phi Sigma Sigma member Tiffany LeDonne said.
She said Phi Sigma Sigma will also be tutoring some young students at the Baldwin Center in the beginning of November.
Though they weren’t organized through Center for Student Activities, OU’s Revive, Experience, Dream, Change Our World got involved by helping at a Rochester haunted house put on by the Jaycees.
REDCOW president Norris Chase said everyone at REDCOW had been looking forward to the event and had a great time dressing as monsters and scaring people.
“It was very interesting to be working on the opposite side of the haunted house,” Chase said.
Chase said his job in the haunted house was working as “the headless man.” He said he carried around a dummy head with him and used it to scare people waiting in line, to get them excited for the house itself.
While OU managed to have a significant impact on the area this year, community service organizations around the country did activities for Make A Difference Day. Sims said that it feels good just to be a part of that.
“It’s a neat way to connect with people across the country,” Sims said.
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