Volunteering Pays Off In The End

While in high school I volunteered randomly in my community because it looked good on college applications or because people always would say, “it’s a good thing to do.”

Ever since coming to Loyola though I have found myself volunteering much more for no reason other than I just want to. Why the sudden change you ask? Well I attribute most of it to the amazing friends I have made in college. My friends are constantly brainstorming new ideas for service work such as  mission trips, fundraisers, and how to recruit people to help out at the soup kitchens.

Christmas On Campus was one of these events that my friends founded and somehow convinced me to help out with. It was this past Saturday and it was such a success! This was the first annual Christmas On Campus so no one knew exactly what to expect.

How many kids will show up? How often should we have a group perform on stage? Will the Loyola student volunteers ditch? How are we going to deal with upset children?

These, along with countless others, were all questions we were asking ourselves up until about 11:00 a.m. Saturday when the volunteers started arriving. To my surprise everything went very smoothly and we had tons of people come out for the event! The gym was full of awesome Christmas decorations (which we had stayed up till 3 the night before putting up) and the children looked so happy.

I will admit, Friday night at about 2:00 a.m. after about 4 hours of decorating and setting up I was questioning my decision to join my friends in administrating this project. It was taking a lot of time and effort that I easily could have put into school work or other leisure activities.

Once Saturday morning came around though, I knew I was grateful for the opportunity to help with the event. The Christmas cheer that I saw in these children’s faces and the enjoyment of everyone in the gym was amazing. It was the coolest feeling to know that I helped make it possible.

I am already looking forward to Christmas On Campus next year and have some ideas on how to improve it!