This past Saturday was RUPA’s spring session of a well-known service project, “Scarlet Day of Service”. This is a program where students can sign up to participate in projects and do a day of community service in various places around our community and those surrounding us. The projects for this spring included, but were not limited to, New Brunswick Clean-Up, Piscataway YMCA, Edison YMCA, Elijah’s Promise, and, my team’s project, Kiddie Keep Well Camp. After a few announcements, packing lunch, and a quick breakfast, all of the different teams were off walking and on the busses to their sites to begin their day.
As we departed from the hundreds of students waiting at the student center at nine o’clock on a Saturday morning I felt excited and curious about what the day would hold for me. My group had a short bus ride to Edison’s Kiddie Keep Well Camp and, as we got of the bus, we were greeted by an empty camp and two women. They told us about Kiddie Keep Well, a free camp for underprivileged youth in the area. This camp runs several few-week sessions with new groups of children every session. This camp provides the children with a safe place that is different than the urban environment most are used to. The time they spend there is loaded with arts, crafts, physical activity, and programs that teach them healthy ways to go through life. The camp also starts out its season with a session for adults in the area that holds programs and a time for them to have a nice meal and shelter.
We split up into two teams. One team was sorting and cleaning the arts and crafts room and one team was formed to paint a cabin in which campers would be staying. I was with the painters as we made our way to the cabin. When we got there and got our instructions from a super spunky older woman named Pat, we all grabbed a paintbrush and began to work. We had people edging ceilings, painting floorboards, bathrooms and pretty much every part of the cabin. My group brought a speaker and we all sang and danced while we worked. Even Pat joined in on the dancing and singing to today’s top hits which was a surprise to us all! We worked for several hours and had so much fun while doing it, even though I am pretty sure the paint will never come off of my body.
When it was time to clean up and eat lunch before going back to Rutgers, we still hadn’t even finished painting a lot of the cabin! Pat thanked us for our work and told us that we were some of her favorite painters she’s had in a long time. We went to another part of the camp, ate lunch, and had a reflection about our day. After talking to all of my fellow team members and having reflection, I really felt so grateful for the opportunity I was given by doing Scarlet Day of Service. Just to think that there were ten of us in one cabin and even with all of us painting for hours we still were unable to finish a cabin was incredible to me. I began to think how much time and effort the two women must have to put in to finish all of the cabins before all of the campers arrive. This doesn’t even mention all of the other things they have to do to get the camp ready! I thought of how privileged we all are to go to such a nice school and lives we live. I thought of how I’ve never even known about all the work people like Pat and her partner put in to create programs of this nature and how they were so thankful for us painting maybe half of a cabin. I also began to think about how much I could give back to those who need it by just donating my time and a little bit of work versus how much I actually do and realized that I’ve taken for granted all of my privileges. I’ve realized that I want to find more opportunities like Scarlet Day of Service to just go out and do my part to better even just the communities we live in. So many of us don’t realize what goes on in our own backyards let alone the world around us as a whole and days like this can really put life into perspective. If we have been privileged with the lives we live, why shouldn’t we go out and take just a little bit of our time to help others who haven’t had the same experiences? It is so easy to just take some action and even just small acts go such a long way. I recommend that every Rutgers student participate in at least one Scarlet Day of Service to educate yourself and do your part in our community. I bet if you do, you will find a program you really enjoy and you will continue to go back. I know I will.