Regent Students Engage in Local Community Outreach
Last semester, four student organizations led outreach initiatives in the Hampton Roads community. They raised awareness for human trafficking, fundraised for a local crisis pregnancy center, helped clean up the oceanfront and collected donations for the hungry. Through this, Regent students encapsulated a core mission for the church, to carry one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2) and show the love of Christ in their communities.
Red Sand Project
RESCUE Initiative is a student organization focused on ending human trafficking in the local community and raising awareness for the issue on campus. This past November, thirteen team members participated in a Red Sand Project, where students poured red sand in the cracks of sidewalks at Virginia Beach Oceanfront. This symbolically highlighted pathways vulnerable to human trafficking, which is relevant because Virgina Beach is ranked 15th in the nation for active human trafficking cases. The team wanted to raise significant awareness in the community by engaging in a visual representation of how trafficking is closer to home than people realize. As they poured red sand in the cracks of sidewalks, onlookers approached and asked about the meaning of their actions. When the team told them about the project, “they were extremely supportive of our efforts, and their eyes were opened to the prevalence of this issue.” In the future, RESCUE Initiative hopes to get more students involved and partner with additional local organizations. Email the team to participate in a future event: ru.rescue.initiative@gmail.com.
Baby Bottles Campaign
Students for Life (SFL) of America’s mission is “to train, recruit and mobilize the pro-life generation to abolish abortion.” Regent’s SFL group is focused on creating conversations and a culture of life on campus that reflects this vision. One project the club did to support this was a Baby Bottles Campaign, where they handed out fifty plastic baby bottles for members of the community to fill with donations of cash, checks and change from their friends and family for a month. These donations totaled over $500 and went toward supporting a local nonprofit pregnancy resource center, the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Tidewater. CPC works to help mothers facing unplanned pregnancies through financial and emotional support. Not only do they offer supplies, such as diapers and baby clothes to new parents, but they also offer pregnancy, parental and grief counseling. Regent SFL’s next goal is to attend the March for Life in Washington D.C. in January. If you are interested in getting involved with this active club, email the team at regentsfl@gmail.com.
Beach Cleanup
The Green Team, a new environmental awareness organization on campus, is led by students Grace Hopkins (president) and Abigail Wesselhoff (vice president). The Green Team’s mission is “to promote sustainability and stewardship of the earth.” Their first project in fall was organizing a beach cleanup at Virginia Beach Oceanfront. They noted that picking up trash from the beach is less about reducing waste in the world and more about protecting the wildlife and ecosystem that can be harmfully affected. The team filled over three large trash bags during this event, despite the fact that Virginia Beach is cleaner than many other beaches. To continue their impact, the organization wants to organize a community compost bin on campus, partnering with local farmers to learn more about protecting the environment. The Green Team is looking for more volunteers to join their organization, so if you want to work on their future projects, email regentgreenteam@gmail.com.
Psi Chi Food Drive
Regent’s Psychology Honors Society, Psi Chi, partnered with two local churches, Azalea Garden and Atlantic Shores Baptist, to organize food drives in the fall semester for their food banks and pantries. As psychology students, the organization believes in meeting people’s basic needs first, which, for many people who are struggling, could be as simple as “mac-n-cheese for dinner,” according to Vice President Isobel Nardone. The society also involved online students in this annual project by linking the churches’ donation pages so students could directly contribute to their food banks and pantries. Students were eager to participate in this project as many were traveling home for Thanksgiving or Christmas and had leftover canned goods or other non-perishable items they were looking to get rid of. Psi Chi’s food drives gave Regent students an opportunity to do something meaningful with their surplus pantry items. To get involved in more events that Psi Chi is organizing this semester, email President Connor Ganey at conngan@mail.regent.edu.
Christians are called to love and serve their respective communities through their talents and resources. As we usher in the new year and begin the spring semester, I challenge you to get involved with student organizations, church outreach or volunteer with a nonprofit to fulfill this calling.
