Citizenship

When I first heard the word "citizenship" I thought- voting. But, clearly citizenship means much, much more than that. To me, citizenship refers to community participation where people are not required to take part in, but rather take upon themselves the responsibility in order to benefit their community. And being a member of a community doesn't show that one is exemplifying citizenship; citizenship is demonstrated by the individual in an effort to serve the community. Even the smallest actions a citizen can take for their community can really positively affect the lives of their fellow citizens. For example. the man in the video we watched in class who woke up early every morning and shoveled the driveway for all of the single mothers living on his street. If more people worked together to help the people around them, communities would be much stronger and united.

Alpha Gamma Delta promotes diabetes awareness. Our philanthropy campaign, Defeat Diabetes One Step at a Time, focuses on the health and well-being of our sisters, friends, family and community. Every spring the Alpha Gamma Delta fraternity at Ohio State raises diabetes awareness through our "Dodge for Diabetes" philanthropy event. This is a really fun way to get our community involved in helping raise money for our foundation to fight diabetes. Another way my sorority demonstrated citizenship this past year was through the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation walk.  I actually really enjoyed participating in this event! The walk was early on a rainy morning, and to be honest I dreaded going. But I enjoyed myself  a lot more than I expected! It was cool to be apart of something that really affected people. And we got to see that affect. To make the event more entertaining and successful, there were fun activities for the families to get involved in before and during the walk. I was in charge of one of the kids moon walks. It was such an easy job, and for a few hours to stand in the rain and help brighten these kid's day was really fulfilling and worth it. My sisters all took part in some activity and really helped this event be a big success! My sisters and I not only demonstrated the form of individual civic engagement of philanthropic giving, we participated in direct service. It was really cool to be apart of this event and to see the families we were affecting, and not just to raise money for a foundation.