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?