Middlesex College Hosts 9/11 Day of Service in Commemoration of September 11, 2001

On September 11, Middlesex College hosted a 9/11 Day of Service for students and faculty to honor lives lost on September 11, 2001. Participants had the opportunity to meet with close to 20 community partners and organizations, perform service projects on-site, and sign up to participate in a future volunteer project.

“Students can get a lot out of serving,” said Sara Hosbach, an Americorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) representative at Middlesex College. “The experience of participating in a service activity is like no other. They can learn about themselves and their community and what they can do to help others in their spare time.”

Local groups that participated in the event included The Arc Middlesex County, Middlesex County Parks, the Raritan Bay YMCA, and the Perth Amboy Teen Center, among others.

“Some of our community partners we have been working with for a while, whether through tabling events or speakers they provide,” Hosbach said. “Others are new partnerships that we have developed for this event. We are excited to start building that bond and have them here on campus.”

Part of the event space was dedicated to performing service tasks, such as packing snack bags for the Replenish food bank, painting rocks for Timmy’s Wings of Hope substance abuse recovery program, or creating coloring books for Lindeneau Elementary School in Edison.

The goal is to make the 9/11 Day of Service an annual event on campus, and add additional days of service including one in the spring semester for Martin Luther King Day.

“We are grateful for the opportunity we have been given for this day and the partners who have volunteered to come here,” Hosbach said. “Service is important and we want students to get involved and volunteer, especially on this 9/11 Day of Service, and remember and honor the lives lost that day.”