Poets lend helping hands

Issue 20, Ricardo Pitones, Campus Life - By Ricardo Pitones on Thursday, March 3, 2011 - 03:41

A chilly morning kicked off Helping Hands Day as dozens of dreary eyed students pulled themselves out of bed and headed over to the Campus Center on Feb. 26. Students got ready bright and early for the 7:30 a.m. breakfast and were off to their destinations by 8 a.m.

As dark clouds set over the morning, worries of rain grew, causing some service locations to be cancelled due to fear for a potential downpour. The locations that closed needed help outdoors and were closed to avoid anyone getting soaked. At the end of the day, there was no rain in sight and many other places got the help they needed.

“The purpose of Helping Hands Day is to give back to the community and get students involved,” Director of Leadership, Experience and Programs Rick Clark said. “Students are able to assist their community in something that Whittier College encourages.” 240 students signed up to take part with the event this year a marked decrease from the previous year. Around 250 to 300 students signed up last year to participate.

Students were not the only ones who decided to join in on Helping Hands Day. Faculty and staff also participated helping out at different Whittier establishments.

There were 13 locations where Poets could help including the Whittier Museum, Salvation Army, How House, St. Matthias Church, the Red Cross, the Posada retirement home and even on campus.
“I helped clean a storage room for Campus Safety and got it organized, it was helpful in the end,” sophomore Nathan Jimenez said.

Some students also saw the help they provided as a learning experience. “It was really fun and we got to learn things I never knew about Whittier working at the museum,” first-year Matthew Manzano said.

“I worked at the cultural center and went through old pictures from the 1980s, restored them and put them in a new photo album. Things then were so different than they are now,” junior Ever Rincon said.

Most of the people that signed up were groups and not as many individual students. “Student organizations’ participation is due to their commitment to the community,” Clark said.

While organizations like Movimiento Esudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan (M.E.Ch.A) and Amigos Unidos and societies like the Penns and Athenians were the ones who primarily signed up for Helping Hands Day, students also had the chance to meet new people. “It was a lot fun and I bonded with new people while I painted and cleaned for the Red Cross, it was a fulfilling experience,” sophomore Lizeth Felix said.

“I think Helping Hands is a worthwhile program because it is a coordinated effort to get a large number is students to give back to the community,” Clark said.