Hofstra Serves During the Holidays

Happy Holidays from the Office of Student Leadership and Activities (OSLA)! While it is a Hofstra tradition that the Hofstra community serves our local communities all through-out the year, I encourage you to take a moment during this Holiday Season to reflect on all the ways that you have served this past year and how you would like to continue serving in 2012.

OSLA rang out the 2011 year serving with the Midnight Run student committee by giving out clothing, food, and toiletries directly to the homeless on the streets of New York City. This bi-annual tradition was started last spring semester after OSLA's first Midnight Run was such a great success! The Midnight Run is a non-profit organization that was started by a man who was homeless as a way for those who have to help those who have-not. There are now over 1000 runs every year with many different organizations volunteering to give out donations on a nightly basis. It is also a great way for volunteers to realize that the negative stereotypes about the homeless are not true and that the homeless are real people no different than themselves. None of us are safe from homelessness. It only takes one tragedy (whether it be a natural disaster, an accident, or a medical issue) to potentially result in homelessness.

Above is this fall semester's Midnight Run Committee. On the evening of the run, November 30th, we were worried we would run into a lot of traffic because not only were President Obama and Mrs. Obama in the city, but so was Justin Bieber for the tree lighting ceremony! Luckily we ran into no problems, and driving was smooth sailing. I think in part because the Midnight Run organization was kind enough to give us all our stops downtown. So all November the Midnight Run student committee collected clothing, food, and toiletries that they sorted out the evening before the run to hand out to the NYC homeless. We saw around 60 men and women and handed out over 100 sandwiches, snacks, hundreds of pieces of clothing, shoes, jackets, etc. It was a great night, and luckily not too cold as well! The Midnight Run is truly a life-changing experience.

Thank you to the co-sponsors of this event: Public Safety, Lackmann, and Recreation and Intramural Sports! Thank you also to everyone in the Hofstra community who donated clothing, food, and/or toiletries! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can tell you it was much appreciated by those whom received your donations. We will be collecting items again in April, so keep an eye out for that! Any students interested in joining the Midnight Run student committee in the spring 2012, please stop by OSLA (260 Student Center).