Many volunteers are needed to make the process go smoothly. The boxes must be assembled and then stuffed with the snacks. This process can take more than six hours if there are only a few people. Our Association of Residence Halls Policy Board was meeting in a room next door to the location where we were stuffing the kits.

As NRHH president, I was in the meeting and unable to help our chapter members until it concluded. During the meeting I mentioned that we were stuffing the survival kits next and that I would appreciate help from a few ARH volunteers to ensure we were able to finish before midnight.

As soon as the meeting let out, I went to the room next door and began assembling boxes. I was followed by at least seven members of the ARH policy, a majority of which were not already NRRH members. They immediately fell into the assembly line. They stuffed boxes, stacked boxes, sorted the boxes by residence hall, and arranged the boxes on pallets.

Once pallets began to fill up, they volunteered to load them into a truck and take them to the various service centers of our housing complexes. With all the boxes filled and dropped off at their assigned locations, it was time to clean up the kit-stuffing area. Everyone quickly went to work, breaking down boxes that food came in, sorting trash and hauling everything out to the dumpster and recycling bins.

In the end, we started at 5 p.m. with four people and ended the night early at 8:30 with more than a dozen volunteers.

This group of student leaders from ARH went above and beyond their duty to the residence hall students they serve by taking hours out of their Thursday night – the Thursday night before finals week I might add – to help out another student organization. They endured plenty of paper cuts and mix-ups but were rewarded with free pizza and pop for their troubles.

However, I think NRHH received the better end of the deal that night. Yes we got the help we needed to finish our tasks but we also received the assurance that our ARH policy board members were more than okay with putting their plans and studies aside for a few hours to help a few friends in need. That is better than any amount of free pizza.

When NRHH membership nomination forms are passed out this spring, I know I will have a few individuals in mind to nominate after witnessing their selflessness that Thursday night.

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