Boo Radley Society: Are Random Acts of Kindness the hotest new form of volunteering?
Project Title: Random Acts of Kindness
Service Site Name: Boo Radley Society OSU
Describe your involvement with this organization
As you may know, the Boo Radley Society is an organization dedicated to spreading cheer throughout the OSU campus by promoting and doing Random Acts of Kindness. What you may not realize is the sheer number of hours and amount of planning that goes into the planning of these events. I was fortunate enough to have a leadership role in this organization. I was the Director of Outreach. My primary responsibility was planning acts of kindness in collaboration with other student organizations on campus such as fraternities and sororities, Buckeyethon, RUOK, and numerous other philanthropic groups.
Describe what you gained as a result of this experience.
I received a crash course in budgeting, managing the time schedules of 5 or more volunteers at a single time, learned ALL about donation request forms for nonprofits from major corporations, and how to market a Random Act of Kindness to get volunteers to actually want to go do it.
Describe positive changes to the community as a result of your service experience.
I feel that the Boo Radley Society has a tremendous impact at the individual level. Our events are designed specifically to improve the overall mood of those fortunate enough to stop by. I know that personally interacting with the members of Boo Radley Society almost 2 years ago, before I was even a member, at one of their events greatly improved my mood and helped me be a better person on that day and certainly into the future because I later joined them thanks to that event.
Describe a person with whom you interacted that made a strong impression on you, positive or negative.
I recall one of the most memorable experiences I had was last semester when I was handing out candy in the libraries with encouraging notes attached to it during finals week. A girl who was heavily entrenched in her books got up after I placed her piece of candy on the desk and said “Thank you so much for doing this. Last semester I was this close to leaving the library and giving up on studying for my final but you guys came gave me a note that said ‘I believe in you’ and it helped me continue studying and I aced it. You guys are one of my favorite groups on campus.” This exchange made me really proud of what we were doing. Because while we might not always be helping the least fortunate people in existence, those that we do help always need it.
Complete the following sentence: “Because of this service experience, I am__________”
Because of this service experience, I am a better student, friend, soon-to-be RA, and overall person.