I recently participated in CofC’s Day of Service, which was hosted by multiple departments on campus, including the Center for Civic Engagement and the Sustainability Literacy Institute. For the first hour and a half of the event, there was an educational component where we were taught about all things sustainability related, but mainly focused on social justice and fair distribution. The purpose of this orientation was so that in our service projects we would be able to tie what we were doing to this year’s theme of social justice and fair distribution. After we all fully understood the extent of the issues, we had lunch and then the group parted ways to our separate service projects. I participated with the Green Heart Project, but there were others including Habitat for Humanity, Keep Charleston Beautiful, Meals on Wheels, and Fisher House. I highly recommend this event as it was a lot of fun and a great way to network (and you get free lunch which is always a plus)! The College’s Day of Service relates to our class because Environmental and Sustainability Studies is interdisciplinary, with that we have to understand the social aspect of the environmental problems we are trying to resolve. Most of these “wicked problems” deal with social justice and fair distribution. Social justice referring to the fair distribution of wealth and opportunities within a community. Through the Sustainability Literacy Institute, we become educated on the social issues that are affecting everyone in the community and in turn we learn how to improve our community.

After volunteering for the afternoon with the Green Heart Project and learning what they stand for and strive to do, I decided to reach out and become a volunteer. On a weekly basis, I walk to Mitchell Elementary School and help tend to the community garden that is located there as part of the “Crop Mob”. If you like to garden, then I definitely recommend reaching out! Even if you don’t like to garden it is still a great way to give back to the community. Activities range from pulling weeds, to turning compost, to constructing garden beds, to painting garden signs, and to harvesting plants. These things might not sound too appealing, but when you’re stressed or having a bad day and you get to go to this garden and see all the hard work that has been put into it, you realize that there’s more to life than school, work, and taxes. And when you do volunteer, you get to take home some of the crops! Through this experience I have learned all the cliché lessons that it feels like I continuously relearn: don’t take things for granted, treat others as you wish to be treated, be respectful, teamwork makes the dream work, etc. You get the idea. But for the kids who get to go outside and learn about things in that garden and learn all of those valuable lessons, it sets them up for success that they might otherwise not believe that they will have. In the world we live in, it’s easy to get bogged down by all the negative things we see in the media and on the news, but it’s always nice to have a refresher of something that is truly good and helpful for so many young children and their families. 🙂