Service day draws record crowd

In an act of selflessness, students from Hillel paired up with Terp Service Weekend on April 6 to perform various mitzvot for the community on Maryland Mitzvah Day. The event, formerly known as Service Day, was hosted by Tzedek Hillel and turned into a more large-scale affair this year. Sophomore marketing major MJ Kurs-Lasky teamed up with Tzedek, a Jewish student advocacy and service group, to revamp the event.

Approximately 130 people attended, about four times more than the amount who volunteered last year, according to Tzedek President Meira Katzoff, a senior psychology and dance major.

Students arrived at Hillel at 10 a.m. for a light breakfast, and each received an event t-shirt before departing for the various service projects. Each volunteer registered online for the project of his or her choice and was taken by bus to the sites around campus and the Washington, D.C. area.

"I really wanted to find sites that served a variety of groups," Kurs-Lasky said. "We have groups working with organizations that serve the hungry, the homeless, people with special needs and the environment, among many other things."

After approximately three hours of community service, the volunteers arrived at Hillel for performances by Kol Sasson and Rak Shalom, desserts courtesy of Bobb's Café and a barbecue made possible by the increase in co-sponsors this year, Katzoff said.

"It was a really eye-opening experience for me," said Rachel Engleman, a freshman letters and sciences major. "Seeing the less fortunate and actually physically helping them made me feel very grateful for what I am lucky to have."

Kurs-Lasky said he was very impressed by how well the Jewish community came together.

"I think this event was a great opportunity to use as catalysis to show how to get involved in the future," Kurs-Lasky said. "Even if 100 people had showed up and each person volunteered for three hours, it is about 300 hours of volunteering that we accomplished. We can use this to motivate and inspire people to get involved with in the future."

Registration for Maryland Mitzvah Day was open to any student at the university, but primarily targeted the Jewish community. Kurs-Lasky agrees that a main reason why this event was so successful this year was the consideration and involvement from many partnering groups.

"By getting these groups to partner with Maryland Mitzvah Day, it shows the campus and the off campus community the power of a group of volunteers in one day," Kurs-Lasky said.