Page 15 - MGATODAY-Spring2019
P. 15
By Sheron Smith
MGA Launches Day of Service
for Students, Faculty, and Staff
On a cool, cloudy day in early Those are just a few of the organizations
December 2018, more than 150 Middle where members of the Middle Georgia State
Georgia State University students, (MGA) community helped out for the Univer-
faculty, and staff fanned out across sity’s first Day of Service, which Dr. Jennifer
the region to do some good. Brannon, vice president for Student Affairs, plans
to make an annual event.
I n Cochran, they visited patients at Bryant “It was time for us, as a University, to do
Nursing Home. In Dublin, they wrapped this and make it a tradition,” Brannon said. “It’s
Christmas gifts for foster children. A church important that while we live, work, and study in
in Eastman got some help with yard work, clean- our communities we not stay in our bubbles but
ing, and organizing. Students and staff scrubbed get out there and meet people and serve others.”
showers and cleaned baseboards for Loaves and Organizations in all five communities where
Fishes in Macon, an organization that helps the Middle Georgia State has campuses provided
homeless. In Warner Robins, students assembled various service opportunities. Some of the
gift bags for clients served by Compassionate Care organizations, in addition to those mentioned
Hospice. above, were the Cochran-Bleckley Recreation
Department, which needed help with athletic
field maintenance; Lake Leisure in Dublin, which
needed help clearing away limbs and other debris
from recent storms; Middle Georgia Community
Food Bank in Macon, which needed help sorting
products and loading boxes; and Happy Hour
Service Center in Warner Robins, which asked for
assistance in preparing a Christmas parade float.
In total, 18 agencies asked to partner with
MGA for the Day of Service.
Although the 2018 Day of Service took place
late in the fall semester, right before exam week,
students who participated were glad they did.
For her Day of Service activities, Rojean
Sanders, a junior majoring in nursing, helped pick
up litter in Macon’s Pleasant Hill area and put gift
bags together for patients served by Compassion-
ate Care Hospice in Warner Robins.
Working in Pleasant Hill was especially mean-
ingful for Sanders because she grew up there.
Day of Service “helped me to understand my
‘whys,’” Sanders said. “Why I’m in school. Why I
wake up. Why I work hard. Why I care for others.
Why I love serving others.”
Spring 2019 Continued on page 16 15
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