The Power to Change
Just last Thursday, Union completed it’s 39th annual “Project Impact”: a day dedicated to serving the surrounding area by sending students to various organizations. Some of the locations that volunteers were sent to this year included the Center for People in Need, the Bennett Martin Public Library, the Lincoln Children’s Zoo and Tabitha Hospital’s “Meals on Wheels” programs.
The day began bright and early at 8 a.m., where breakfast was served underneath the clock tower. After the distribution of t-shirts, everyone was huddled into a large circle for the group photo. Pastor Rich prayed over the students and discussed the significance of the event. “This event has become so large that other organizations have called and said, ‘Hey, could you help us do our own Project Impacts?’ Some of them have even taken over some of our old sites! You’ll never truly know the reach this event has on the greater community.”
After that it was off to the races! Everybody went to their respective volunteer sites and got to work. As one might expect, there was a lot of manual labor to do … pulling up weeds, laying down mulch and lifting and moving of things. But everyone did it with a big smile on their face.
Erica Owens described her experience: “We went to the Center for People in Need and sorted the donated toiletries and medicines. It was an interesting experience, and I have crazy respect for the people that volunteer there regularly.”
During this time, I toured each of the sites and posted to Union’s various social media platforms. I was amazed as I saw all these people coming together to create change. That’s something that can’t be seen when you only go to one site, but I was able to observe a little bit of the macrocosmic impact we had on Lincoln that day.
After the rewarding community service, everyone returned to socialize and have their fill of pizza. Just like what Peter said in his epistle: “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.” (1 Peter 4:10 NLT) Union College has lots of resources, but in my opinion, its greatest is people. That resource was used to its fullest potential to reach and touch the community.
Drew Hickman is a sophomore studying communication.