The joy of sharing

The great thing about being on a campus this big is that it seems that there is always something to do, whatever type of person you are. If you like sports, go and play intramural soccer, basketball, dodgeball or a wide array of other activities. If you love helping out the community in anyway possible, as this columnist does, last weekend proved that there were many different contributions one could make on a small level of society. \nOn Saturday afternoon I helped report on the Hoosier Hills Food Bank Life of Bloomington canned food drive for this paper. While interviewing the volunteers of the drive, I could see the enthusiasm that my fellow students had in helping out the community. The smile and joy that were on their faces as they were doing this made it worthwhile and easy to interview them. They did not want to merely bring in the food and organize it; they wanted to get the message across that others should want to help out the community and that a lot more is needed to fully help society. There will never be a time when homelessness and hunger are fully gone, but I feel that initiatives like this can slowly make a difference in one of the thousands of small cities across the U.S.\nHaving come from New York to Bloomington, I have seen firsthand the problem of homelessness in a big city. A smaller city like Bloomington may have fewer hungry people on the streets, but there is still a problem that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Every time someone donates a can of soup or a box of macaroni and cheese, this problem slowly goes away. \nAfter the food drive, I joined my fraternity brothers in volunteering at a variety of projects in and around Bloomington. It was part of our 200-hour day program in which we collectively volunteered 200 hours at a variety of worksites in one day. We helped out at a 5K run, an elementary school and helped maintain and clean up a trail that we adopted. Rather then merely watching people volunteer, I was an active member on this "volunteer Saturday," and I can't tell you how good that made me feel. \nSir Winston Churchill once said, "we make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." I know that the statement might sound cliché or corny, but it is the truth in my eyes. One doesn't have to join the Peace Corps or help out domestically by going down to the Gulf Coast to clean up hurricane damage. Suitable activities abound in Bloomington. I think that everyone should give back as much as they can. The volunteers I saw on last Saturday did. You should too.