AS I SAT on the floor of my room earlier this week, my back supported by an old dusty couch and my mind comfortably on cruise control, I thought about the columns I'd written this year and what they had attempted to accomplish. As I sat, reminiscing and bemoaning the quick passage of yet another year, a singular realization - a "mind brake" if you will - suddenly screeched me to a halt.
I was rather disappointed with myself to realize that almost every column I'd written contained some sort of critical undertone. Criticism is a highly effective way of encouraging change and highlighting wrong, but although it's true that criticism is an important tool a person can use when composing an opinion piece, it's not always necessary to make a strong argument. Some of the best opinion articles I've read are completely supportive - they point out something positive and exist to encourage that point, not to cast it down. Life is very drab and depressing if everything we read encompasses negativity.
That being said, I'm going to take these last moments the semester affords me to talk about something noble and worthy of praise: the incredible amounts of student service and sense of volunteerism at the University and in the Charlottesville community.
Service to the community is a fundamental characteristic of University students. Many students devote countless hours a week to Madison House volunteer programs because it's in our nature as students to give what we can, when we can - almost like an unspoken aspect of our University education. Recently, Madison House has faced what I'd call a sense of competition from other student organized service groups. These service groups have become an integral part of the University's character and provide students with the ability to devote to the more specific needs of the Charlottesville community.
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These groups are sometimes rather small and in their infant stages - like the Ivanhoe Road Community Support Program, which travels to rural Appalachian Virginia and provides needed service to these communities, or an organization called Special Friends, that was first organized in the fall semester. Special Friends volunteers work with local teachers and parents to assist children with special needs, such as autism, blindness or dyslexia. Last night, Special Friends was awarded the Best New Service Organization award by the Virginia Service Coalition in recognition of its outstanding programs and its ability to grow as a service organization.
There also are large service organizations that are a permanent part of the University and further demonstrate this unspoken commitment many students feel to service - such as Alpha Phi Omega, the University coed service fraternity, or Blue Ridge Mountain Rescue Group which spends over 15,000 man hours a year searching for lost hikers and campers. These organizations also were recognized by the Virginia Service Coalition for their outstanding service efforts.
Many service groups are limbs of larger organizations or are created for specific service events. In March, the University Democrats sponsored a bachelor auction to benefit a local homeless shelter. The Hillel Jewish Center organized a sandwich making table on the Lawn in March, to donate peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches to the Salvation Army. The examples of these groups are endless, because University students and organizations are committed to service in and beyond the Charlottesville community.
It says something remarkable about the University and the type of people it attracts, that these organizations are founded by busy students for the sole expressed purpose of service.
At last night's service awards, Make A Difference Day was recognized with the Best One Day Service Project award. Like Habitat For Humanity, also an outstanding service organization, "Diffday," as it's sometimes called, is one of the largest national service organizations with a local University chapter. This fall, Make A Difference Day included over 60 individual service projects, with participation by more than 4000 University students - and we've sometimes called the student body apathetic?
Apathy doesn't exist in a place where people are aware and are genuinely concerned with outside issues. At the Virginia Service Coalition's community service awards, the members of 15 outstanding service organizations were honored for their efforts and service to the Charlottesville and University community. This University is not apathetic in the least.
Keep doing what you're doing because you are making a difference, one project at a time.
(Luke Ryan's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He was a member of the Virginia Service Coalition's award selection committee. He can be reached at lryan@cavalierdaily.com.)
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