While many aspects of student life at Castleton look different this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Spartan spirit of giving remains strong. This holiday season, Castleton students have found meaningful ways to pay it forward in their communities while staying safe.
Each year, Professor Dave Blow’s Media Ethics class includes a civic engagement component. Over the past five years, students in this class have raised more than $7,000 to help local families in need during the holiday season. This year, students raised $1,560 through an online campaign, and two individual donations increased the total raised to almost $1,700. The funds were donated to Castleton Cares, a local food pantry, to help fill dozens of food boxes for the upcoming holidays.
Students Jake McCarthy, Jana DeCamilla, and Marty Kelly also spent three hours on the morning of Nov. 28 distributing Castleton Cares Thanksgiving boxes to local residents in need.
With Castleton University offering remote learning this fall and regulations on visitors into local elementary schools due to COVID-19, the Castleton Mentoring Program has found a creative way to remain connected with students. Castleton mentors pen letters to their young mentees, with writing prompts that change each week. For the final week, students decided to compile the responses as videos instead of letters.
Sigma Alpha Lambda is a national leadership and honors organization dedicated to developing the individual and serving our campus and community. Castleton’s Sigma Alpha Lambda’s chapter organized a toy drive on campus in November, collecting play items from students, faculty and staff, and community members. The toys collected were donated to Fair Haven Concerned, an organization that provides an emergency fund to help families pay for heating fuel and a food shelf to help fight food insecurity.
Castleton’s Student Government Association collected 233 non-perishable food items and 362 clothing donations during their drive in November. Food items were donated to Castleton Cares and Castleton students who are unable to return home during Winter break. Clothing items will be donated to a local organization that provides emergency shelter and other services for individuals experiencing domestic violence, as well as local families in need.