![\"Freshmen](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-01-gcc-serve-day-1.jpg\")
The entire freshman Class of 2030 went out Aug. 22 to serve in the Grove City community for the college\u2019s first Serve Day. A new orientation event that President Bradley Lingo initiated, Serve Day saw 547 students volunteer at over 25 sites across Grove City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe wanted it to feel like a great day in the kingdom,\u201d Eric Fehr, the assistant dean of student life, said. Although Fehr was part of the team that decided to put the \u201cIt\u2019s a great day in the Kingdom\u201d slogan on all the students\u2019 bright red t-shirts, he pointed to President Lingo as the day\u2019s inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen President Lingo started, he had a deep desire to see more service taking place around campus,\u201d Fehr said. \u201cPart of that vision was seeing something that provided freshmen the opportunity to be introduced to our community in a way of them learning to give back from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While not without its hiccups, the event successfully saw the college\u2019s newest students immersed in their new community. Freshmen did yard work for neighbors and volunteered at local churches, rescue missions and schools, picked up trash off the streets and baked and crafted for different ministries across the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe flooded Grove City and the local area with Grove City red,\u201d Fehr said. \u201cWe wanted it to feel like a great day in the kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Primarily planned by the OB Religion Committee, which began finding sites in March, Serve Day switched the usual script of orientation events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ryanne Gardner, a member of the committee, believed that getting freshmen to leave campus and think about life beyond college was a good move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important for those students to get off Grove City campus,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cEspecially once the year gets going. You kind of stay here. It\u2019s like a Grove City bubble.\u201d A junior who already spent years experiencing the \u201cGrove City bubble,\u201d Gardner maintained that the event\u2019s required status did more good than harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think some people were a little bit frustrated that it was required, but once everyone got back from the sites, they were like, \u2018Oh, I really enjoyed that,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Timothy Heiser, another member of the committee, agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe rest of orientation is focused on them and how they are settling into college,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Heiser, the event enabled freshmen to look outside themselves and ask, \u201cHow can I serve?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Sonja Schwartz, a freshman nursing major, the event was a bit of a mixed bag. With many sites canceling their need for help the night before or the day of, many groups lacked direction or sufficient work to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was definitely humbled by the fact that I was picking up trash for two hours,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cBut I think I could have been more helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schwartz approved of the day\u2019s focus on serving but challenged the idea that it had to be mandatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I would make it mandatory,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cI think a lot of Grovers would do it regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While not all freshmen may have felt the day was necessary or efficient, many recipients of the day\u2019s work were beyond thankful for the help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tracy Barr and her friend Amanda DiAlesandro were two of these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs two single moms trying to keep up with everything, having these incredible students step in and help us meant more than we could ever put into words,\u201d Barr said regarding the lawn work freshmen helped them with. \u201cThey went above and beyond, and the compassion, kindness and genuine care each one of them showed truly touched our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freshman go to work in community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[14,80,162],"class_list":["post-2315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","tag-front-page","tag-julia-kramer","tag-issue-2026-09-04"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-01-gcc-serve-day-1.jpg",2386,1626,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-01-gcc-serve-day-1.jpg",150,102,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-01-gcc-serve-day-1.jpg",300,204,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-01-gcc-serve-day-1.jpg",768,523,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-01-gcc-serve-day-1.jpg",1024,698,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-01-gcc-serve-day-1.jpg",1536,1047,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-01-gcc-serve-day-1.jpg",2048,1396,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Freshman go to work in community","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2587,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315\/revisions\/2587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Freshmen](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-01-gcc-serve-day-2.jpg\")