In celebration of Earth Day, the freshman class decided to give back by volunteering with a series of nonprofit sustainability and community service organizations. Each student chose a nonprofit to volunteer with from eight different options: Solar One, Holy Apostles, Community Mayors, AHRC, Milestone Park, Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, Shore Road Park and William O’Connor. These organizations provided Poly freshmen with a fun and impactful service day that showed them the various ways they can help others and the world.

At Shore Road Park, students helped clean up, weed the garden, and improve the park’s paths and walkways.

Freshman Victor Levy, who worked at Shore Road, appreciated the experience he had.  “It was really nice to be able to go out and help the environment with some of my closest friends,” Levy said.

Students who ventured deep into Staten Island and worked with Community Mayors also appreciated the opportunity to give back. Community Mayors works with local volunteers and disabled children to help clean up gardens and grow new trees. The experience was fun, interactive, and fulfilling.

Freshmen Leah Williams said, “Seeing the looks on some of the kids’ faces when we were planting trees and weeding the garden with them was priceless.”

Freshmen who chose to go to Holy Apostles departed earlier than the other groups in order to prepare food for people in need. Holy Apostles is a church in Manhattan that doubles as a soup kitchen. Every weekday, volunteers gather in the morning to serve hot meals to the homeless people of New York City. Poly students joined along in that daily tradition, greeting guests at the door, making meals, and helping clean up tables.

At Milestone Park, students helped clean up and do maintenance work. “It was very rewarding because I helped give back,” said freshman Rei Baker.

As a whole, the freshman class learned a lot about different service organizations and the value of their work, as well as how to help address the needs of their community.