Community Commitment

Service Event

August 24, 2019 at the Ohio Union

On my first full Saturday here at Ohio State I was so excited to participate in Community Commitment. Participating in service projects and volunteering has always been an interest of mine, so this was the perfect way to start off my time here. I don’t know what I was expecting but I certainly wasn’t expecting a group so large gathered at the Ohio Union at 8 am on a Saturday morning. The sheer amount of students there, whether they were with groups or as individuals, was really amazing and left a deep impact on me. It made me so happy to see so many other students committed to helping others even for just a morning. 

Once the event got underway and we all went our separate ways, my group went to Habitat for Humanity’s Restore, which they described as a Goodwill-style hardware store. The task they gave us was to break apart these wooden pallets with crowbars and sledgehammers. I’ll admit I was a little intimidated to use these tools since I had no experience with them. However, once we got started it all started to flow and I got the hang of it. My group began a routine of one of us using the crowbar to take the back slats of wood off then we would flip it over and we’d take the sledgehammers to the rest.

When our time there came to an end it was really fulfilling to see that the piles of pallets had gone down significantly. And despite being intimidated by these tools at first, the experience was quite therapeutic; giving us all a chance to get out any anger or worries resting upon us. The service we did and that many others did that day reminded me of IA because there are people everywhere in need of help. Whether it’s somewhere here or abroad, doing service work to benefit others and working together to get the work done is always a positive experience, and one of the most rewarding activities to do. I found this experience to be no different and I hope to do more service throughout my life.  

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