Best Buddies Thanksgiving Fest!

For those who don't know, Best Buddies is a national non-profit ogranization that is dedicated to providing friendship and employment opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities.  Students at Trinity College meet with their Best Buddy a few times a month in pairs and as a group there are events such as the Friendship Walk, Halloween Party, and last weeks ThanksFest!

On Sunday, November 21 Best Buddies came together in the giving spirit of Thanksgiving and made bird houses.  The houses - currently on display in the FACES Lounge, will be donated to home owners through Habitat for Humanity.

Afterwards, everyone shared delicious food.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Green Campus and ConnPIRG's No Drill's, No Spills campaign collaborated to hold energy audits the last full week before Thanksgiving break and the final week of Dorm Wars.
Some of the energy saving tips included:
1. Take colder showers. It will wake you up and actually make you cleaner!
2. Unplug you TV when it is not in use!
3. Take a shorter shower!
4. Brushing your teeth?? Turn off the water!
5. Use a drying rack instead of a clothes dryer

Hey, and outside the college dorm - these tips could mean more money in your pocket.

The goal of the energy audits was to help students learn ways they could make their dorm lifestyle more energy-friendly with the hopes of their building winning the pizza party prize!

On Saturday, Green Campus ended the week with Vigilante Recycling at the Tree House - from 11 pm to midnight.

Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week

ConnPIRG held their Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Campaign the week before Thanksgiving! Tricia Cavanaugh (2014) made great flyers to encourage students to come to the events.  Volunteers tabled with facts about homelessness and a cardboard house made by Nicole S. (2014).

The week culminated with the SleepOut! The SleepOut was organized by student volunteers to raise awareness about Homelessness and educate about the true faces of homelessness and the need to address affordable housing in Connecticut.
Speakers included Reverend Woods of the Hartford Rescue Mission and Richard Luchansky of Immaculate Conception Shelter and Housing Corporation. Reverend Woods presented his reflections from starting his a food kitchen and shared the recent growth the program has experienced as they expand services to include emergency housing.  After an a Cappella performance with the Trinitones, Richard and Michael spoke powerfully on the invisible faces of homelessness.
Afterwards the students made s'mores, reflected on the themes of the night, and built a huge box fort before going to 'bed' in their sleeping bags.  The next morning one student said, "I was so cold last night, even with the body heat of everyone else in the fort and the huge extra sleeping bags we had over us.  It was a reminder of how important it is to address homelessness in Hartford."

Also, the Amnesty Chapter at Trinity College held the Annual Hunger Banquet on Friday, November 19 - the same night as the SleepOut.  Volunteers flyered for the event which took place in the Washington Room.  Participants 'paid' with a donation of canned goods and/or cash.

Praxis baked almost 200 apple pies for Thanksgiving! Members gathered in Hamlin Hall at 11 am to make the pies, and some assembled boxes for delivery.  Volunteers got to see the insides of the Mather bakery and the huge, commercial oven that was used to make the pies.  As a few volunteers took the pies out after an hour, they enjoyed the delicious smells!

Another group on campus, Habitat for Humanity, completed their third build of the semester that same day.  Ten volunteers met and carpooled to the build site in Hartford, where volunteers worked with two families in building a house.

Habitrot and Relay!

After weeks of planning, over a hundred students participated in this years Habitrot and the group raised more than 12,000 dollars! That means that this years Habitrot raised more money than any other in years past.
What made the event a success? Habitat for Humanity members tabled for the event the week before, and students from frats or sororities, dorms, and other service groups formed teams.
Also, some Professors gave extra credit for participating! Are you a science major who needs some motivation to train? Keep in mind for next year that Professor Curran and Professor Niciase in the Chemistry Department offers extra credit to those students who can beat him in the 5 k race.  Hmm considering the Chemistry team had the most participants by far, there were many hopefuls! 



Tuesday night, Relay for Life held a very successful Ice Cream Social! Members of the Trinity Community were able to sign up as Relay for Life Fundraisers with five dollar donations, and everyone got hyped up about the main event, which will be in the Spring. Currently there are 35 teams signed up.

Halloween on Vernon

The 20th annual Halloween on Vernon this year was a success. A week before the holiday over 200 children from Hartford were chaperoned along Vernon Street by enthusiastic volunteers.  Groups visited cultural houses, Greek houses, and other organizations.  The event ended at Vernon Social Center, where volunteers from different campus organizations helped children decorate cookies, fish for candy, and toss bean bags, and everyone went home with huge amounts of candy!


Morris Jalloh, 2012 showcasing his face painting skills!



Trinity students who participated had just as much fun as the children!!

Outside Praxis Jessica Nunes, 2013 and Yoda

                                           

Swipe a Meal during Yom Kippur!

Yom Kippur, which means Day of Atonement in Hebrew, is a day of fasting for many of the Jewish people. That means that those students who choose to participate as part of their religion did not use some of their meals the week of September 19th and Hillel seized the opportunity to announce a fundraiser where students can donate their meals.  After tabling outside of the Mather Dining Hall for a few days, the students were able to raise a considerable amount of money which will go to Mazon - an organization that fights hunger around the world.

Hillel is the student organization for the Jewish community on campus, however it is an example of how open the Trinity community is because of the continued interest of non-Jewish members in the organization and the events Hillel has realized.

For example, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Hillel held it's 5th annual Pink Shabbat in the Vernon Social Center on October 15. Each Friday Hillel holds a Shabbat dinner, open to the entire Trinity Community. However, this was different not only because of the location, but because it filled up! T-shirts were sold the days leading up to the event, with proceeds going to Breast Cancer Awareness. Congratulations to the members of Hillel in the successful turnout of this event.  

Green Campus Apple Picking at Belltown Hill Orchards

Professor Christoph Geiss and his family joined Green Campus

Green Campus enjoys nature and some delicious apples from local farms.
Melanie Foster, 2014, says "I brought back a few apples, but there were some students who filled their bags to bring back to campus."

October!

The Lions Club participated in the annual agricultural fair in Berlin during the first weekend of October. Despite the rain and cold weather the first day of the fair, volunteers Vicky Chi and Li Lu stayed optimistic and managed to sell quite a few mums. During the three days of the Fair, volunteers managed to sell a total of 125 mums, raising money for their end of the year goal.

Also, Habitat for Humanity voted on their Spring Break destination.  Spring Break coordinators Sophie Starchman and Jessica Nunes presented four options, in North Carolina, West Palm Beach, Florida, Biloxi, Mississippi, and Washington, D.C.
Members voted and the destination for the Alternative Spring Break trip in 2011 is...an ocean side location in Johns Island, South Carolina! The islands are in need of more affordable housing as a result of recent development on the islands and generations of serparation from the mainland. On the same day, Habitat ran a successful spare change drive that allowed them to raise more than eighty dollars through donations from Trinity students. Lastly, on World Habitat Day the Underground was packed in an effort to raise awareness while enjoying good music and food.

And these beautiful autumn days can only mean that Halloween on Vernon is coming! ACES and other student groups are preparing for the event when about 200 children from Hartford trick-or-treat on Vernon Street.

Praxis Graffiti Clean Up with Knox Park

Praxis members met early in the morning on Saturday to 'clean up' graffiti in a local skate park.  In coordination with the Knox Parks Foundation, the future skate park will be a site where youth can create their own graffiti art.  By painting over the graffiti which was not acceptable, Praxis members participated in a type of creative destruction.
After a few hours of painting, PRAXIS had a photo shoot!!

This year the event was not a requirement for the entire group.  After spending a beautiful day cleaning up the park with the Knox Parks staff Ryan and Ron, the 9 members who participated agreed it would be a great event to hold every year!

Building Homes, Building Hope, Building Community

Habitat's First Build took place on Saturday, September 25. Nine members of the Trinity Habitat trekked to New Britain for the weekend build. It was a complete success! Students learned a skill they didn't even think about before - putting up drywall.

Among the other volunteers we met that day were 4 homeowners, a former teacher and Peace Corps volunteer, a Trinity alumnus, and an experienced carpenter. Also, the homeowners dropped by to stay hi, an excited family of three boys, one little girl, and their mom!

Red Flag Campaign

Everyone saw the clusters of red flags? Along the long walk and in the quad? Well if you didn't catch on, the red flags were calling attention to the signs of an unhealthy college relationship. Jocelyn Schur together with the other WGRAC warriors and Students Against Sexual Assault planned the Red Flags Campaign as part of the center's mission to promote awareness of social issues and a college environment conducive to interaction between men and women. 
 (Read Jocelyn's article in the Trinity Tripod: A Girl's Right to Change her Mind)
On Tuesday and Wednesday there was tabling outside the Mather Dining Hall, where correctly answering at least 2 questions about statistics related to violence meant a yummy treat.
WGRAC also put up large posters, on one side different texting scenarios demonstrated how college students could recognize the red flags in a friends relationship.  The opposite side highlighted the signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships:

• Communication, Trust, Connection, Balance, Safety, and Boundaries and Signs of an Abusive Relationship
• Jealousy, Emotional Abuse & Victim Blaming, Isolation, Coercion, Physical and Sexual Abuse, and Stalking 



How would you respond?

Welcome to the Community Service Office blog!!

Hey hey!
We had a great kick-off to the academic calender with another success Do-It Day event.  Coordinators Joe Laws and Nafe Tengatenga spent the final weeks of June through the early September organizing and planning the event so that 700 members of the Trinity College Community could make an impact in the Hartford neighborhood.
The different sites, including Knox Park, the Connecticut Coalition for Mutual Assistance Association, the Boys and Girls Club, the Children's Museum, and others from a wide spectrum of interests and programs, added up to more than 25 sites.
After an afternoon of work, the students met back on the Mather Quad for a picnic of delicious donated food from local restaurants. Great Job to the Do-It Day coordinators, site captains, and participants who represented Trinity College so well to the Hartford Community!

At the same time that the established Do-It Day Service Project successfully completed its 11th anniversary, another Trinity College tradition began.  The opening of the COOP, the college thrift store, marked another step in campus efforts to reuse and recycle.  In the thrift shop you can find anything from microwaves, to mirrors, posters, clothing, shelves, lamps, pens and pencils, etc. Not only does the shop promote more a more sustainable living style at an affordable price, but the volunteers that run it allow for all profits to go to local charities.  Interested? The COOP is located on the bottom level of Jackson, below the Tripod office.
Would you like to volunteer? email Giuliani Lopez, Class of 2011.
Also, check out this article  about the COOP on the Trinity Website.