Occurring this Saturday, October 21, Make a Difference Day is fast approaching. For those that don’t know, Make a Difference Day is a day for SLU students to go out into the Canton community and donate their time to service projects. These projects include everything from raking leaves in a community members yard to helping paint the fence of a local business or park.
The event is accessible to all SLU students; individuals don’t need a team or a group to get involved. Anyone can go out and help, as long as they visit the student information desk located in the Student Center and sign up. There are two shifts, one from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and the other from 12 p.m.-2 p.m.
Make a Difference Day is of immense importance to the local community. As college students, we tend to get caught up in stressful events occurring in our lives. It is true that twenty-page papers and lab reports are time-consuming, stressful, and not pleasant aspects in our lives, but we always have somewhere to sleep and get food. St. Lawrence County has one of the highest poverty rates in New York State, where 1 in 3 children live below the poverty line. As such, we represent an incredibly privileged sector of this area.
Although many St. Lawrence students completed community service in high school, some students forget to volunteer in their community throughout their college careers.
As Hartel Smith ’18 states, “It is important to remember that we are not just a part of the St. Lawrence University community. We are also part of the Town of Canton, and we ought to give back to the area that provides us with so much.”
With all the aforementioned statistics about the financial troubles of Canton floating around, it is sometimes easy to forget how great of a town Canton, New York is. Not only do both beautiful fields and farms surround Canton, but it also contains family businesses, restaurants, and a gigantic sense of community.
The town of Canton also puts up with drunken SLU students yelling at all hours of weekend nights, as students make their regular sojourns to the Ticker and Hoot. If you have ever walked to town on a Sunday morning to grab a bagel from the Bagelry, you have undoubtedly been confronted by the myriad of trash lining the sidewalks- much of that trash is empty beer cans and red solo cups.
As Michaela Osborn ’18 states, “one step towards improving the St. Lawrence University name in the Canton community is by donating two hours of your time to Make a Difference Day.”
Last year around 300 students worked in the Canton community, doing simple projects and aiding both business owners and residents. The sponsors of Make a Difference Day are hoping to double that number this year.
In addition, if you are interested in giving back to the community in which you live for nine months out of the year, you can always join any of the volunteer groups on campus. Just go on to the volunteer page on the SLU website and find something that interests you. Some groups to consider, which do low commitment weekly volunteering, are Habitat for Humanity, Campus Kitchens, H.O.P.E., Best Buddies, Reading Buddies, Circle K, SLU Buddies, and Rotaract.