This week, student volunteers brightened the lives of dozens of people, and spread Valentine’s Day greetings throughout the Middletown community. The Office of Community Service and Volunteerism hosted a series of volunteer opportunities this week in anticipation of Valentine’s Day.
The events, such as making Valentine’s Day cards for senior citizens, were organized by Kristin Fuller ’04, the Women and Children’s Program Coordinator. This is the second annual Week of Love that Fuller and her Kappa Alpha Theta sisters have organized, in addition to numerous other community service projects.
“We just want to make sure that everyone in the community gets a Valentine this year,” Fuller said.
Members of the community received the students’ efforts with enthusiasm. On Monday four volunteers visited One MacDonough Place in Middletown, where they gave seniors homemade Valentines and did other crafts activities with the residents.
“This is my first Valentines Day card in years,” said a resident according to Fuller.
According to Fuller, the residents enjoyed chatting with the students, and when it was time to go, asked the volunteers if they could stay longer.
On Wednesday Theta sisters and other volunteers went to the Children’s Home of Cromwell to make cards and interact with the children.
The Children’s Home is a full-service treatment center, providing residential treatment, special education, and outpatient therapy for struggling children and their families.
Lots of children turned up to socialize and make Valentines for their parents, friends, and crushes, exhausting the supplies and snacks the volunteers brought with them.
“Isn’t it amazing how little room ‘I love you’ takes up in paper, but how much it fills the heart on Valentines Day?,” said a child at the center to one of the volunteers.
A staff member at the center commented that it is beneficial for the kids to see new faces and experience a different environment, especially with a positive older influence.
“I love kids, and I love getting to kids who need help,” said Kathleen Salmon ’07, who has volunteered at Children’s Hospitals before.
Other students said they participated in the event because it made them happy to make others happy, because they wanted to give something back to the community, or just because.
“It’s good for the people volunteering and good for the community. Plus it’s nice just to get off campus,” Fuller said.
Elaine Hensle ’05, Vice President of External Relations for Theta, says she has always been involved in community service since high school and worked in an Emergency Room for four years. She said that in order to truly make a place her home, she needs to be in touch with the community.
“[Volunteering] has allowed me to be more in touch with Wesleyan and with my own life,” Hensle said.
The Week of Love also included a trip to the Women and Children’s Center in Middletown on Thursday. The Center is a rehabilitation and transitional living center for women who have abused alcohol or drugs in the past.
Volunteers made crafts and baked cookies with the residents, in addition to talking to the women and playing with the children.
Volunteers will return to One MacDonough Place today to help bake cookies and give out the cards they made with the children on Wednesday at the Children’s Home.
In addition to last year’s Week of Love, Fuller and her sisters organized Martin Luther King week volunteer opportunities, and will be going on a trip for Habitat for Humanity this spring break.
“It’s always rewarding, and always nice to see people who are happy to see you,” Fuller said.
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