The homemade dog toys for the SPCA
Steven Stutz / The Bona Venture
stutzsa20@bonaventure.edu
BY: HADLEY THOMPSON, NEWS EDITOR
Service Day, a day when students and faculty come together to participate in activities to help others, is the Saturday before Francis Week at St. Bonaventure University. Members at the McGinley-Carney building, Bonaventure’s center for Franciscan ministry, have had service days already this year, and are hoping to continue to have more.
But this service day coincides with the Inauguration of Dr. Jeff Gingrich, Bonaventure’s 22nd President.
Alice Miller-Nation, director of the Franciscan Center for Social Concern at Bonaventure, said this service day is especially special because it celebrates the inauguration and coming of Francis Week together.
“It’s a way to celebrate Dr. Gingrich’s inauguration and welcoming to our community as well as remembering that service and the reason why we serve is all about encountering the other,” Miller-Nation said. “There are many more things to unite us rather than divide us.”
Miller-Nation said that service days also give people a chance to meet others that they never have while enjoying the activities planned. A key service day activity this year is involvement with the Cattaraugus County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
This year there will be groups of people to walk dogs, pet cats and make dog toys out of old fabric.
“I have developed a new appreciation for animals at the SPCA. The animals that are there are animals that not anyone would want in their house … I used to think that visiting the SPCA was a soft service project, that it was an easy way to feel good. But then someone explained it as we are making these animals adoptable. It’s sort of one more neat thing the Bonaventure community can help,” said Miller-Nation.
This upcoming Service Day there will be activities such as making dough, baking cookies and cleaning at the Warming House, the oldest student-run soup kitchen in the nation. There will also be a chance to clean gravestones of the Allegany Franciscan Sisters. Other activities will be making no-sew blankets for cancer patients and making care bags for those in need. There will also be a chance to visit the elderly at the local assisted living facility.
Miller-Nation hopes that the day people graduate from Bonaventure, their acts of service have impacted them so that they leave with a Franciscan heart.
“We want our students to know how to be hope and light in the world,” Miller-Nation said.
“For those who are not Franciscan or religious, Miller-Nation believes that acts of service still uphold in becoming a well-rounded member of your society.
“Everybody came to Bonaventure for a reason … For somebody who isn’t religious, or necessarily doesn’t understand or identify with our Franciscan heritage, I would say, you’re probably a smart person, how can you be a good person? How can you take that away from here, and offer it to the world?”
Miller-Nation said, both Francis Week and Service Day, even if one is not a religious person, can be looked at in a historical and cultural view. That these events are the foundation of Bonaventure.
“That what we believe here at Bonaventure is the path that we walk,” Miller-Nation said.
Miller-Nation mentioned that Gingrich values service.
“I believe he signed up for two years of service that turned into six years of service, full-time service. He really values all that we have here at Bonaventure,” Miller-Nation said.
Miller-Nation finds that this year’s day dedicated to service, alongside the inauguration, is the best way to express the core and center of Bonaventure.
“Bonaventure is outward facing,” Miller-Nation said. “Service helps up to look outwards not focus on inwards. I think a combination of a celebration and service greatly shows who we are and will be.”
thompshp20@bonaventure.edu
