Hey guys! Hope you are having a good week! This week has been crazy with projects and midterms before we leave for spring break next week (I’m going to Hawaii- so excited!), but this past weekend I had a few opportunities to give back to the community that I wanted to share about!
Community service was really important to my high school career, and making time for it in college has been challenging but very rewarding. This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in three activities to give back!
First, my sorority held our annual philanthropy, Phi Ball! Basically it’s a basketball tournament for all the fraternities on campus to play in, and we sell shirts and food to raise money for our charity which supports Women’s Heart Health! This event is really fun and also raises a lot of money to send to this cause!
My Phi Ball Team!
Saturday, I actually participated in 2 different volunteer events! Saturday morning I went to McCarthy Quad with USC AICHE to participate in Spirits in Action, which was basically a carnival for children with special needs. They were all assigned a partner for the day and had the chance to do obstacle courses, games, bounce houses, and many other activities. We got to man the face painting table, and I had so much fun transforming these kids into whatever fantasy they had. My specialty became batman, and it was so awesome to see how happy they got when you showed them their face at the end!
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- AICHE USC at Spirits in Action
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- Face Painting Batman!
Finally, on Saturday afternoon, my sorority and a fraternity travelled to Manhattan Beach for a beach cleanup! We jointly adopted a stretch of beach, and spent the day making it even more beautiful. It was so depressing to see how much trash there was, especially the high quantity of styrofoam pieces which will just go back out to the ocean to be swallowed by fish. It was also a perfect beach day (about 80 degrees in the middle of winter!), which made the day even more enjoyable.
All the people who went to cleanup the beach!
It really just felt great to give back and spend a few days helping the community around us. There are tons of ways to give back, and making time for it has been really important. Last weekend I participated in Dance Marathon to raise money for Children’s Hospital, and I’ve also done high school mentorship programs, given tours to elementary children of the science center, and many other things!
