HIRAM COLLEGE Students' charity honors president
The events helped celebrate the inauguration of the college's president.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- In celebration of its new president, Hiram College students and faculty spent the day doing community service projects in several Northeast Ohio cities, including Youngstown.
About a dozen Hiram freshman students spent Wednesday putting together soup kitchen packets of condiments at the Salvation Army on Glenwood Avenue.
It certainly isn't a glamorous job, but the students found the experience rewarding.
"It's good to give back to the community," said Sean Hardy of Aurora, 18. "We can afford to go to a nice school, and this gives us a chance to help out people who aren't as fortunate as we are."
The Portage County college will inaugurate Thomas V. Chema as its 21st president today.
Chema is a former Ohio Lottery Commission director, Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chairman, and executive of the Gateway Economic Development Corp., where he led the financing and construction of Jacobs Field and Gund Arena in Cleveland. He also was an early consultant to the Youngstown arena project.
Other projects
Other Youngstown projects done by Hiram students and faculty Wednesday included serving meals to Park Vista Retirement Community residents, sorting boxes of food at the Second Harvest Food Bank, and delivering meals for the Meals on Wheels program at John Knox Presbyterian Church.
The students who worked at the Salvation Army are taking a freshman seminar at the college, "Decision 2004," which focuses on the presidential election, said Craig Moser, a Hiram professor teaching the seminar.
"The thought of the 'Day of Service' is to maintain the school's civic responsibilities," he said.
Jean Malandro, director of social services for the Salvation Army in Mahoning County, was thrilled to see the Hiram students help the facility. The Salvation Army's Glenwood Avenue location provides about 2,300 meals each month to the less fortunate, she said.
Glad for the help
Malandro said the facility has trouble getting people to put the condiment packages together -- one includes ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, and the other includes sugar, a sugar substitute, and a swizzle stick for coffee, both put into plastic sandwich bags.
"People don't like to do this because you can't see the help you're giving compared to handing out food," she said. "This is a great thing for them to do. I was so surprised when I was asked if they could come. It's a blessing."
Mike McDevitt of Lisbon, an 18-year-old Hiram freshman, said he enjoys helping others. "Anything we can do for the community is pretty satisfying," he said.
Jake Tennant of Akron, a 19-year-old freshman, said: "It's important to realize there are other things going on than what's happening in my life. I feel good about helping people."
skolnick@vindy.com