Butterflies

In return for all of the wonderful things that Macaulay gives to us, we are committed to doing community service hours throughout our four years of undergrad. For most of us, it's not a big deal, having happily done many hours of service in high school. However, getting out of bed at 7 AM on a Sunday morning to go to Staten Island for some community service was more than a little bit difficult. Luckily, I got my best friend Whitney, who is in Macaulay at Baruch, to come with me. We headed to the Sneak Peak event at Freshkills Park, which is not yet open to the public (hence the name "Sneak Peak"). The site used to be a landfill, so much of the event was about environmental sustainability, which is very relevant to the discussions my class is having in MHC 200 (Science and Technology in New York - the required seminar for first term sophomores). Though the day started early, and it was colder and windier than we expected, it ended up being alot of fun. Whitney spent the whole day as the face-painting artist (the kids loved her - see an example of her artwork in the picture above) while I wandered from station to station - helping kids make bracelets and kites, signing visitors up for tours, and making sure people were putting their waste in the proper place - trash bin, recycling bin, or compost bin. The kite making was at the top of the north mound, and the view was beautiful - you could see the downtown skyline and parts of NJ. Not a bad way to get 6 hours of community service done - not to mention free shirts, hats, and lunch :)