TCNJ FSL Service Stories 2014 April 2014 | Page 6

Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc.

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"The current undergraduate sisters of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. – Gamma Chapter all share a commonality. We each have had to overcome various obstacles in our lives to be able to be at TCNJ today. Despite the struggles we have faced we understand that there are people in this very school and surrounding community that have their own obstacles that when we compare, our obstacles seem trivial. There have been community service projects in particular that have showed us how fortunate we are to have the little things that we often take for granted.

Most of our community service efforts are aimed towards our national and chapter philanthropies, St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital and The Blue Ribbon Campaign respectively. However, last semester, we volunteered for a dinner shift at the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK). The staff prepped us beforehand about what to expect and about our respective tasks. However, when the doors opened we were still in shock. We were not strangers to poverty or to those less fortunate but this was a very different experience. These were people that live in the town right next to us and one of the people that came in for dinner was actually a janitor at our school. It made it a more personal experience to see him there with his family. His family had worn out clothes ad his wife was disabled. It was heart wrenching and it added to the emotion of the day. This experience showed us to appreciate the staff at TCNJ, our families and our experiences. Since that day, we decided to attend TASK at least twice a semester. This experience has helped shape our experience as sisters and as advocates for the community."--Evelyn Pereira