During the spring semester, Delta Sigma Pi set up volunteer dates on certain weekends to volunteer at FACES, Farmville’s local food pantry. We spent the latter half of mornings organizing inventory, packing bags, and cleaning the warehouse.
Ronald McDonald House Drive
For the fall of my senior year, Delta Sigma Pi organized a household item drive for the Ronald McDonald house, our primary philanthropy. We collected common household items like dish detergent, paper towels, hand soap, etc. and drove all of the items up to one of their locations in Richmond.
Polished Lancer
For Spring 2019, The College of Business & Economics’s Dean’s Student Advisory Board pioneered a new fundraising campaign, The Polished Lancer, in support with the Charity, Polished Man. This campaign raises awareness against child abuse by having individuals paint one fingernail blue. We set up booths along Ruffner Fountain and encouraged students to donate what they could in return for a painted blue fingernail. For its first year, The Polished Lancer raised upwards of $200 over the course of two weeks. It was great being able to start something on Longwood’s campus that has a direct impact on individuals who have been victims of child abuse.
Elwood’s Cabinet
This semester, one of Delta Sigma Pi’s community service events was partnering with a new initiative called Elwood’s Cabinet. Spearheaded by one of our brothers, Megan Garrett, Elwood’s Cabinet is designed to be a food bank for Longwood Students in need, located across Ruffner Hall in the Wesley Campus Ministries. Open every monday from 6:30-9:00pm, any Longwood student can come and present their student ID to get any supplies that they may need, from hygiene products to shelf-stable food.
Delta Sigma Pi organized a fraternity food drive and set up volunteer sessions throughout the weeks beforehand to help get Elwood’s Cabinet ready for its grand opening. I participated in the food drive and donated various items to the pantry.
Catfish Festival
Delta Sigma Pi is very community conscious and encourages service around Farmville. Their main service event is helping with the charity Catfish Festival, an event located right next to Route 15. They’ve been partnering with the Shriners for over 20 years to help put on the festival, in addition to Hampden-Sydney fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon the past few years.
This year, I helped facilitate the actual festival. Brothers were stationed at various food serving tables, and I managed the drink station. After we finished, we were able to participate in the festival for free and take home leftovers. It was nice to have the chance to bond with my brothers and the brothers of Delta Kappa Epsilon while helping the Shriners with their charity event. We could tell that the Shriners were extremely grateful for our help, so it was nice to meet people from the community and it felt nice to give back to the Farmville area.
Project Linus
For the Fall of 2017, I participated in Project Linus with my Delta Sigma Pi brothers. We spent an afternoon in our chapter room making tied-off blankets for orphaned or seriously-ill children. We bought fuzzy fabric in sports, princess, and Disney patterns, then used small blue and pink strips to tie off the ends, leaving the blankets with a fringe around the border.
It was not only fun, but also a very rewarding experience to know that we can help make some child a little bit happier. Named after the Peanuts character, Project Linus’s tagline is “providing security through blankets”. It is a great organization to work with and I hope that Delta Sigma Pi has the chance to work with them again.
Catfish Festival
During the Spring semester I decided to pledge the business fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi. Since one of their core pillars is Help, Delta Sigma Pi is very community conscious and encourages service around Farmville. Their main service event is helping with the charity Catfish Festival, an event located about 20 minutes outside of town. They’ve been partnering with the Shriners for over 20 years to help put on the festival, in addition to Hampden-Sydney fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon the past few years.
I decided to sign up a few days before the initial festival to help prepare the catfish that Shriner fishermen had caught. It took about an hour for 10 of us to bread and package 500 pounds of fish on a farm right outside of Farmville. While I had second thoughts about going at first, I found the trip to be extremely enjoyable. It was nice to have the chance to bond with my brothers and the brothers of Delta Kappa Epsilon while helping the Shriners with their charity event. We could tell that the Shriners were extremely grateful for our help, so it was nice to meet people from the community and it felt nice to give back to the Farmville area.
Cyber Security Summit
During my first semester at Longwood University, I had the rare and wonderful opportunity to volunteer for the Cyber Security Summit, an event leading up to the 2016 Vice Presidential Debate. Since I am a Business Administration major and Cyber Security minor, I jumped on the opportunity to learn more about technology in the business environment.
As a volunteer, I was a liaison tasked with greeting attendees and helping college students with their Lancer Cards. Having to arrive an hour before the event began, I had the privilege of meeting several Business School members, both student and staff, as well as Business School alumni who had traveled to the event. It was a great opportunity to not only meet students who actively participate in the Business School, but also see the success of the Business School alumni and get helpful advice regarding the business world.
In addition, I was able to attend the summit and gain valuable knowledge on the field I plan on studying, Cyber Security. Overall, my volunteering experience was a very positive one and further confirmed my confidence in my field of study.