By Emily OlsonContributing Writer
While some students will hit the slopes, enjoy home-cooked food, or indulge in a long winter’s nap this holiday season, others will organize Tickle Me Elmo dolls, ask 5,000 college students to make a $1 donation, or serve at an African refugee center.
Instead of lounging around at home, some students are choosing to volunteer through Northwestern organizations such as Navy ROTC, Campus Kitchens and Alternative Student Breaks.
ROTC and Campus Kitchens will focus their volunteer efforts in Chicago this winter, while Alternative Student Breaks is sending students across the country to deal with national issues such as healthcare and disaster relief.
Volunteering can be surprisingly complicated. Last year, students in NU’s Navy ROTC program had to move locations several times while trying to solicit toy donations for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program.
“We went down to Chicago to (collect toys) outside of the American Girl store at the same time an abortion rally was taking place,” said Weinberg sophomore Chris Vittorio, ROTC’s public affairs officer. “A group of men in uniform did not fit in, and we had to walk all around Chicago with our boxes to find another location.”
This season, members will dedicate 150 hours to organizing toys at a Chicago collection center.
This year also marks the five-year anniversary of the national branch of Campus Kitchens. The group celebrated by launching a “5 for 5” philanthropy on Oct. 6, which runs through Dec. 20.
The charity aims to earn $5,000 by asking 5,000 students nationwide to each make a $1 donation. If the goal is met, three corporate sponsors will donate an additional $5,000 each, for a total $20,000.
Donations made by NU students will benefit the NU chapter, which has been on campus since May 2003. Additionally, the national branch of Campus Kitchens will offer a $1,000 reward to the school that collects the most money. Funds will go toward paying general operating costs, said SESP senior Nikki Goldwater, assistant coordinator for NU Campus Kitchens.
This winter a few more than 100 students will go on ASB trips around the country. At least 12 students and two site leaders will be at each of ASB’s seven volunteer sites. The program offerings range from a Hurricane Katrina relief effort in New Orleans to a project improving urban poverty in Baltimore.
Last winter, Weinberg sophomore Lauren Murrell worked in Los Angeles with underprivileged youth at risk for gang violence and drug abuse. In the spring, she assisted low-income children at a Cherokee Nation Head Start program in Oklahoma.
“Seeing how the Cherokee people dealt with riding the line between two separate cultures was really neat,” said Murrell, who oversees outreach and events for ASB. “There was one world that was very similar to ours and another that was completely different.”
This December, Murrell will spend a week in Denver, working with refugees at the African Community Center. ASB doesn’t divulge program details until students are on the trip, but her expectations are high.
“My friend went on the (Denver) program last year and said her personal highlight was taking a family of African refugees to their first home in America,” she said. “It sounded amazing.”
Reach Emily Olson at [email protected].
