By Megan Lee

On September 29, 2017, over 100 Hilbert College students participated in the day of service. This day of service is a Franciscan day of caring and Hilbert participates in this event each year.

Students are given the option of ten different locations to do community service and then the student is assigned to one place. These locations include the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, Cradle Beach, the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, the Food Bank of WNY, the Village of Hamburg Parks and Recreation, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Meals on Wheels, Unyts, Compass House, and Hilbert College Athletic fields.

The location I went to was Cradle Beach. Cradle Beach serves the needs of children with disabilities and those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Cradle Beach has multiple programs, including a Residential Summer Enrichment Camping Program, which takes in 800 campers a summer. This organization is non-for-profit meaning Cradle Beach relies on donations and volunteers to help them keep up with their amenities.

Ten of us went to Cradle Beach and we cleaned a cabin that the staff in training stay in. The cabin had four rooms and a bathroom upstairs, as well as downstairs and this cabin was very dirty. Cleaning involved sweeping and washing the floors, washing the stairs, washing the bathroom, cleaning the windows, and getting rid of cobwebs on the ceiling. Once the cleaning was over, the one staff member who works at Cradle Beach told us the cabin had never been cleaner, so it is safe to say we did a good job.

Meghan Roser, a freshman at Hilbert, is one of the volunteers who participated in the Day of Service and went to Cradle Beach. She has done community service in the past, and she chose Cradle Beach looking for a different experience. Rosher states, “I thought Cradle Beach would be a different environment for me considering I have only volunteered in a hospital setting.”

By participating in the day of service, each volunteer shares an experience and went out and did good in our community. Being a Franciscan college, helping others is very important and one of our values. Roser says it perfectly, “Everyone joined together as a community and helped surrounding associations displaying peace and service.”