A group of more than 250 students gathered in front of Baldwin Auditorium Saturday morning for the start of Into the City, an annual community service event co-sponsored by the Community Service Center and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life.
This year's turnout was the largest to date. It was driven in part by the program's inclusion in Greek Week, a celebration of greek life on campus. About 60 percent of participants in the event were not members of greek organizations, however.
Each group of students headed to one of 21 community service sites in Durham that were selected by the CSC because of a close relationship between the center and the personnel at each site.
President Richard Brodhead, Durham Mayor Bill Bell and Chapel Dean Samuel Wells greeted students and offered encouragement before the students began their service activities.
"When you go to college you can stay on campus the whole time and make people think you're all snobby... or you can concentrate on making your world a bigger world," Brodhead said. Brodhead followed his own advice, joining a group that worked at George Watts Montessori Magnet School on Watts Street near East Campus. He worked alongside students for several hours to beautify the front of the school by trimming trees, laying down mulch and planting flowers.
During Greek Week this year a new system was implemented that split members of greek organizations into different teams that received points for participating in Greek Week events like Into the City. Teams with the most points earned prizes, such as $100 to fund a pizza party.
The goal of this system was to promote unity among different greek organizations and to motivate students to do service who might not have otherwise, organizers said.
Regardless of the participants' motivations, Wells praised the students for attending.
"Don't worry too much about your own motives [for being here]-you can have all sorts of reasons. As long as you have one really good one then the work you are doing is precious," Wells said.
Wells tried to prepare students in case their efforts were not as well-received as they expected.
"My first bit of advice is: Don't wait around for someone to say thank you. It's not about waiting around for people to make you feel good," Wells said.
The student organizer of this year's Into the City, CSC co-director Becca Parrish, said she did not believe this would be a problem.
"We've been really well received by the community," said Parrish, a senior. "A lot of the groups [in the community] look forward to this because they know it is an annual event."
Freshman Allison Perrin said she also looked forward to Into the City. Like many freshmen, this was her first chance to participate in a large-scale community service project in Durham. Perrin painted part of Asbury United Methodist Church on Clarendon Street behind East Campus.
"One [child] came inside and said it looked really cool, so that was good to hear," Perrin said.
Along with the many successes, there were also some mishaps. Sophomore Devon Clarke, a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, said his group ran into problems at the Durham Food Bank.
"They ran out of stuff for us to do because they had a group of four come before us to sort potatoes into bags," Clarke said. "But they ran out of bags so we went to another site and sorted clothes and toys." Despite this, Clarke said he enjoyed himself and that he would consider participating next year.
Junior Yiting Yang, coordinator for the greek participants in Into the City and a member of Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority, said the program was very successful.
"I think very strongly that this was a really great opportunity for students to literally go into the city, get to know their surroundings and really feel the hardships these people face," she said. "I don't feel they will necessarily volunteer again at the exact same sites but I think it will definitely inspire them to do more service throughout their years at Duke."
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