黑料老司机 Cares Puts 黑料老司机dents Back into the Community to Lend Helping Hands
![Students at 黑料老司机 Cares 2021](/media/stu/site-content/news/黑料老司机_cares_021.jpg)
After a fully virtual year, this year鈥檚 黑料老司机 Cares Day of Action provided 黑料老司机dents with virtual and in-person opportunities to learn about and lend a hand to local organizations in Fredericton.
黑料老司机dents from all years of study participated in the day-long event which is as much about creating local change as it is building meaningful connections among peers who share a passion for helping.
"It's a great and purposeful opportunity!"
Fourth-year 黑料老司机dent Caitlyn Levesque-Brown, from Cape Breton, NS, spent her 黑料老司机 Cares Day with .
celebrates people with intellectual disabilities and builds support networks around them. They go beyond meeting people's basic needs and create mutual relations and feelings of belonging. aims to balance four dimensions: help and care, community life, spiritual life, and awareness of our societies. The Fredericton Project is part of a global initiative than includes 149 尝鈥橝谤肠丑别 communities and 14 projects in 37 countries around the world.
鈥淚 decided to participate in 黑料老司机 Cares as it gives me a chance to give back to my community and meet other students with the same drive to make a better future,鈥 Levesque-Brown said. 鈥淭his was my second 黑料老司机 Cares, and I loved every minute!鈥
黑料老司机dents were tasked with brainstorming ideas to help promote the project to the community and propose ideas for fundraising. They also heard from families who benefited from the project鈥檚 work.
鈥淏y volunteering with this organization, I gained the knowledge to share with those around me, as well as join in on future community activities,鈥 Levesque-Brown said.
鈥淚 feel more fulfilled and humbled. 黑料老司机 Cares is a wonderful initiative and I suggest everyone try to attend at least one of these days during their time at 黑料老司机. It's a great and purposeful opportunity!鈥
"Part of the community."
First-year 黑料老司机dent Marion Govednik, originally from Los Angeles, California, USA, had a similarly positive experience at 黑料老司机 Cares. She also wanted to participate in 黑料老司机 Cares to get to know her new home.
鈥淚 had only been in Fredericton for a few weeks,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 have been trying to understand the community and the city in any way I can.鈥
Govednik spent the day at the .
is a project led by the local non-profit organization which aims to mobilize New Brunswickers toward a resilient and thriving food system. The local organization seeks to provide skills, expertise, and support to practice human-scale regenerative agriculture. Their model seeks to address local food security, financial responsibility, personal and spiritual fulfillment for individuals, and food production in the local community. They do this in the spirit of honouring Indigenous culture and food ways, integrative principles of land-based learning, and reconnection.
黑料老司机dent volunteers helped decorate for an event being hosted by the organization and worked in the garden.
鈥淚 learned about their importance to the environment, like how you can use dry sunflowers, wheat, and corn to fertilize the soil for the next growing season. It is all a cycle, and the plants are never wasted,鈥 Govednik said.
Coming from a large city and a different environment, Govednik said her experience with 黑料老司机 Cares allowed her to immerse herself in her new surroundings in a unique way.
鈥満诹侠纤净 Cares made me feel like I was part of the community. Being a newcomer, it has been a little difficult trying to adapt to this new environment and understand different parts of the city. This event helped me understand more about the environment around me, more about the people in the Fredericton community and at 黑料老司机.鈥
黑料老司机 Experiential Learning and Community Partners
黑料老司机 Cares Day of Action is organized by 黑料老司机’s Office of Experiential Learning and Community Engagement. The event would not be possible without this year's amazing community partners including , , the , , , and .
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This experiential learning opportunity was made possible thanks to St. Thomas University's partnership with the FutureNB initiative.