Boston Trip (May 17-21, 2010)- Miriam Tinberg

From Monday, May 17 through Friday, May 21, Marilyn, Gigi, Amanda, and I went to Boston to do a variety of service projects. We worked at places like The Greater Boston Food Bank, Community Servings, Boston Rescue Mission, Nutrition Works and Cradles2Crayons. This week of service was a fantastic and memorable experience for me, and everyone else in my group I believe. While at these places, we did many different things such as: sorting and packaging food, bagging frozen foods, cooking and serving food to outside guests, sorting, matching, and bagging children's clothes, and distributing bags of food to people living with HIV and AIDS.

Something that stuck out the most for me during this week of service, was the time when we socialized and interacted with the people in need. When we served food to the people who couldn't afford it at the Rescue Mission, and to the people with HIV and AIDS at Nutrition Works, that was when I could truly see our work paying off. Virtually every single person who came up to us for food looked like someone we would see walking alongside us on the street. And when they came up, a lot of the people started talking to us. We joked with them, we laughed, we held normal conversations that you and I would hold on a daily basis. It proved once again to me that we cannot judge anyone, especially not by their condition: whether it be their clothing, their body, their illnesses etc. They did not choose to be like that, and the least we can do is treat them the way they deserve to be treated. And I feel as though, on this trip, we really did treat them with care and respect. And at the end, many of them thanked us, and said things like "God bless you" very sincerely for helping them. In fact, one touching thing that happened was at the Rescue Mission, after a father and son had finished eating, and had put their trays away, the two of them walked back up to the serving counter just to thank us. It was such a nice gesture- and it showed how much they appreciated the work we were doing to serve them.

Overall, I am so glad that we chose to go to Boston for this service trip. I feel that we connected with our service work so deeply, because we essentially were servicing our home (in reality, Boston is close enough to be our "home). We showed that it is not necessarily mandatory to go far to feel fulfilled. In addition, I believe we made connections and built bridges to many different organizations and people in Boston, that students in following years could use as they create their own unique projects. I had such a good experience with this project, that I hope to be a part of the service projects to come, whether it be as a chaperone, advisor or guiding force in the planning stages.

Thank you so much to Mr. Gustave for all of the work he did to make this experience the best it could have been, and all of the faculty that chaperoned, and put up with us. :)

Miriam Tinberg