30 Days of Giving 2016, Day 7 – Honoring a Historic Legacy With A Day of Service at Old Westbury

More than 30 students from SUNY Old Westbury prepared activity kits and care packages for the patients at Cohen Children’s Medical Center as part of Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, a call to service initiative by the Corporation for National and Community Service. This is the third year that Old Westbury has participated in Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, with previous projects including the creation of disaster preparedness kits and care packages for the needy.

Event sponsor Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Honor Society’s president, student Josiah Pierre said, “when you help others, regardless the size of the contribution, you are showing you are of importance by having something to offer the community. In the end I feel we can really influence positive change in other people’s lives. What I will remember the most about this service day is that we did something incredible for children by showing some SUNY Old Westbury love! Everyone has a story and everyone has something that they might be going through, but it really feels good that we can all come together and help others.”

The goal of the service project was to illustrate through hands-on experience the importance of conducting civic engagement activities and the positive power of what service can mean to the people and communities in which the students reside. The activity kits are aimed at providing comfort and care for the pediatric patients at Cohen so that they may more enjoyably pass the time spent either waiting for, or recovering from treatments.