New Rochelle, N.Y. - On October 4, 2013 Iona College Softball Team headed over to the Campus Ministries office to help prepare for the Midnight Run. The Midnight run is a community service event where Iona students share food, clothing, toiletries and conversation with the less fortunate of New York City area. Although it seems that most of the work is done the night of the event, there is a lot of planning and preparing that goes into the Midnight Run. That’s where we come in!
Our job for the hour of volunteering was to organize, fold, and box clothing that would be taken that night to the city to be given away to the homeless. Trash bags, cardboard boxes, and tubs were full of random donated clothes but we quickly separated them into designated bins. At the beginning, we were worried that there wasn’t going to be enough work for us to do. But once we got permission to dive into the clothing on the shelves, we were able to fill the labeled tubs to the brim. We were even able to organize, match, and label the shoes. After the hour passed, we leveled off the tubs and put the lids on. Our work was done and it was up to the next group of volunteers to pass them out.
The experience itself was very rewarding, especially knowing that it would be going to the local homeless. Ashley Hubaykah, Campus Minister and Project Leader of the Midnight Run, later reported to us that it was “the best Midnight Run I [she] has ever been on” and it was partly due to our work. She said “we didn’t run out of anything! We had plenty of clothes and I love how the shoes were organized- it made it so much easier.” Those words alone were completely worth our efforts and made us proud of the work we did. Overall, it was a great experience and ICSB would love to help out Campus Ministries again in the future.