California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

    Cal Lutheran Collaborates with United Way for Day of Caring

    The weekend of Sept. 17 and 18ย California Lutheran Universityโ€™s Community Service Center worked with United Way to send out students and members of the community alike for charity and community outreach opportunities.

    Since 2001, Day of Caring has been an effort shared by community members to offer hands-on help to sites around the local community. It offered services that were hands-on and provided the community with help that charity organizations might offer.

    The way one might get involved is through clubs. Several clubs were a part of this event in order to gain access to their allocated club funds. Some helpers were mandated by their work to give back to their community through various traditions within that company, or a spark of communal pride.

    Jordon shovels mulch into the wheelbarrows that other students would distribute onto the trail
    Jordon shovels mulch into the wheelbarrows that other students would distribute onto the trail

    However, that was not the whole story. Volunteers were able to sign up and receive work that impacted the community in a major way and with them being strictly volunteers, this painted a good-hearted picture of those who helped.

    โ€œI love community service. I feel like itโ€™s a lot more than just going out and digging a trench or plowing a field. Itโ€™s a way of recognizing your privilege and your place and saying โ€˜OK, this is the way I can give back for how Iโ€™ve been blessed,'”Environment and Sustainability Intern Rachel Lapp said.

    Several students at Cal Lutheran were present among the volunteers, as Cal Lutheran’s campus was a kick-off site for those around the community to lend a hand.

    Local businesses, like the Thousand Oaks Wells Fargo branch, also served by lending about 12ย employees to serve alongside students.

    โ€œWe love it. At Wells Fargo we definitely encourage our team members to give back…This is one of our favorite events of the year and weโ€™re really looking forward to it,โ€ said Ali Nawabi, Conejo Valley district manager.

    Wells Fargo, Cal Lutheran students and volunteers were able to provide hands-on services to the community by participating in activities from spreading mulch in the Conejo Botanical Gardens to cleaning library books in the Simi Valley Library.

    โ€œYes, it is part of our job, but I want to be able to help so I am excited to go to the libraryโ€ฆI do my part to make it look nice so that it can be enjoyed by Simi Valleyโ€™s citizens,โ€ said Adam Santa Cruz, CSC advocacy intern.

    The words โ€œgive backโ€ and โ€œcharityโ€ are used to describe this type of work, but another word that was also incorporated this year was โ€œcommunity.โ€ These efforts benefited the community and will continue to do so until next year when the movement picks up again.

    Connorย McKinney
    Staff Writer