“FIRST” College students Join at Community Celebration

West Scranton High School graduate Rocco Leonard ’29 is aware of his manner round Scranton.

He additionally acknowledges that his journey in his native metropolis is much from over — with extra to study, extra to expertise and extra methods to present again.

Leonard and 50 different college students, together with 40 fellow rising first-year college students, spent 5 days earlier than courses began serving to space nonprofit organizations with The University of Scranton’s Center for Service Social Justice (CSSJ) First-Years Involved in Reflective Service Together (FIRST).

“I joined this program because I wanted to feel more attached to the community,” Leonard stated.

Leonard and his fellow volunteers achieved that connection Friday, Aug. 22, when FIRST and Friends of the Poor co-hosted the inaugural Community Fun Day at Novembrino Park.

Hundreds of group members — lots of them youngsters — attended the occasion, which included face-painting, splash pads, free meals and faculty provides.

There had been additionally quite a few video games, together with cornhole, ring toss, putt-putt golf, Jenga and Skee-Ball.

“I think this is great,” stated Kenya Snyder, operations director for Friends of the Poor. “This year, Pat Vaccaro (CSSJ director) and Avianna Carilli (FIRST coordinator) came to us with this idea. We thought it’d be nice to have a fun day for the community and look at this turnout — it’s amazing.”

The group of FIRST volunteers contains locals, like Leonard, in addition to individuals like Myranda Chamorro ’29, of Long Island, New York.

“I love putting myself out there, I love helping others, I love doing service,” Chamorro stated. “Signing up for this program, I had no idea what I was going to do. But I do not regret it at all. I made a ton of new friends. I started helping out my community even before school started. So, it was great to get out of the house and be a part of something.”

While every FIRST volunteer has a reminiscence and exercise they’d name their favourite a part of the week — Leonard’s was Mock Olympics within the night on the University’s Retreat Center at Chapman Lake — all of them agreed Friday’s Community Fun Day was the proper option to finish it.

“People that met only five days ago have now made lifelong friendships,” Leonard stated. “I want to see these people in the future. I want to see them grow up and I want to be alongside them.”