Bulldogs turn out in droves for One Day, One Dog, despite the iffy weather

by Chuck Gordon

A gloomy weather forecast for Thursday wasn't about to keep Wingate students and employees from giving back to the community on One Day, One Dog.

A handful of activities were canceled or moved because of forecasts of a rainy morning, but the One Day, One Dog Day of Service and Giving powered ahead undeterred on Thursday, with more than 1,300 people helping out at more than 50 service projects taking place around campus and the local community.

"I always find that when people care, they find a way," says Dr. Catherine Wright, director of the Collaborative for the Common Good and organizer of the day's service projects. "One Day, One Dog is all about caring, so people found a way."

One Day, One Dog began in 2016 as a way to introduce a service element to the University's annual fundraising push, in a nod to the University's motto: "Faith, Knowledge, Service." Every year since, classes are canceled for one day in the spring so that students can take part in volunteer activities.

Projects this year included serving breakfast at the Community Shelter in Monroe, reading to students at Wingate Elementary School, and working at local domestic-abuse and animal shelters.

In the Student Organizations Space (SOS) in the Crowder Welcome Center, students from fraternities and sororities assembled hygiene kits to be distributed to homeless shelters by the local nonprofit Heart for Monroe. Within 40 minutes, the students had already assembled 300 kits. Later groups delivered the kits and then came back to the SOS to write letters to veterans. They wrote a total of 475 letters.

Amanda Alling, director of campus involvement, directed the operation, but she left much of the real direction up to the students themselves. The first task she gave them was to figure out the best way to get the kits assembled (the students quickly organized an assembly line and got straight to work).

"My big thing was I wanted them to figure out how to get the service done," Alling says. "We're all about service learning."

Hendley Haws, a sophomore from Black Mountain, N.C., who helped bag the hygiene kits, says One Day, One Dog is significant and unique. "I feel like it's really important for the community and the college itself," she says. "I don't know another college that has one day dedicated to doing different community-service projects, either around the campus or in the community."

Junior Samuel Fullwood says he volunteered often while in high school at Camden Military Academy but had never had as much fun doing so as he did assembling hygiene kits and hanging out with his Delta Sigma Phi fraternity brothers. "There were no negatives," he says, "just double positives."

Thalia Tayborn, a junior biology major from Raleigh whose task was to spend four hours checking in volunteers at the SOS, appreciated being given time to volunteer. "All of the volunteering opportunities I've done I've had to find myself, so I think this is a really cool concept," she says. "Also, with a day off of classes, it gives people time. I'm very busy, very packed, back-to-back events, so days like this are a good concept."

Over in the kitchen space at Northeast Residence Hall, students and employees busily made sandwiches for a homeless shelter in Monroe - peanut butter and jelly, pimento cheese, and toasted cheese - while others prepped vegetables to go in a beef stew made by Franklin Emelife, a freshman from Nigeria, who learned his cooking skills in the Food & Faith class taught by Rickie Sarratt.

Afterward, the meals and bags of donated clothing were carted away to Heart for Monroe, which handled distribution. After spreading peanut butter and jelly for an hour, Xephyrilis Hall, a senior from Jacksonville, Fla., found a quiet spot in Northeast to treat herself to a toasted-cheese sandwich.

"I think it's a good day for us, considering we're a school about service," she says.

The 1,300+ volunteers, many from 30 registered student organizations, worked with 14 community partners on the service projects. Some of the volunteers had to be shifted away from outdoor activities that were canceled, such as working on the Community Garden in Monroe. Members of the football team who were supposed to be hoeing and planting instead helped set up for an event in which local teens could "shop" for free prom outfits.

In Cuddy Arena, individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) from Union Diversified Industries played in the UDI Baseball Buddies Wiffle Ball game in front of hundreds of cheering students and employees. That event was moved from Ron Christopher Stadium because of weather.

Still, it went off without a hitch.

"The universe provided," Wright says. "Whenever a door closed, an entire gym opened. It's been fabulous. It's been better than we ever dreamed of."

One Day, One Dog is more than a day of service. It's also a day of giving, and Wingate alumni and friends of the University came through in flying colors. As of 7 p.m. on Thursday, Wingate's Office of Advancement had nearly reached its goal of 1,200 gifts, totaling more than $260,000.

And it's not too late to give. Find out how to give to the area of campus that means the most to you.

April 11, 2024

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