On March 30th, several volunteers with the Interfaith Table and Friends in Faith offered their time and energy to clean up the Arboretum. An afternoon digging weeds and clearing the area gave participants plenty of time to share meaningful conversation and reflect on the importance of serving their community. Here are the thoughts and reflections of some of our participants.

“Helping or serving?” Such was the question we pondered over a delicious lunch catered by Panera. Personally, I had always used the words interchangeably, but as our discussion progressed, I realized that there is a significant difference between the two ways of one person providing aid to another. One participant in the discussion eloquently explained that when you “help,” you are ultimately acting out of self-interest — offering your time and energy to feel good about yourself or to make yourself look better to others — whereas when we “serve,” we lose that element of “self” and focus our efforts entirely on improving the life of others. Because of this key distinction, it is important that volunteer efforts emphasize “serving” in order to make meaningful and lasting change.

As a leadership team, we worried that the increased demands of service might have discouraged busy students from participating in our afternoon of volunteer work. I had several friends tell me they’d be more inclined to participate if it had only lasted an hour or two because they had schoolwork to complete. However, I found that the four-hour time span was the perfect length of time to make a meaningful change without feeling overworked, and I greatly enjoyed sharing conversation with new friends and mentors, so I’m very grateful to have dedicated an entire afternoon to give back to my community.

– Eliza