More than 200 students—the largest turnout in the eight-year history of Into the City—gathered Saturday in front of Baldwin Auditorium and prepared to venture into Durham.
In past years, Into the City’s purpose has been to introduce freshmen to the city of Durham and to the many opportunities for community service that the city can offer. This year, the Community Service Center expanded the program to include upperclassmen as among the Saturdy kickoff events to President Richard Brodhead’s inauguration.
The event also was the community service aspect of Greek Week, a celebration of fraternity and sorority life at Duke. These two additional purposes of Into the City drew about 50 upperclassmen in addition to the 150 freshmen.
Senior Alice Williamson, co-director of the Community Service Center said the event had a higher profile this year than it has in previous years. Greek Week drew people who would not normally participate to represent their greek organizations, she said. She further attributed the high student turnout to Into the City’s affiliation with Brodhead’s inauguration.
“I firmly believe that President Brodhead’s presence and the fact that this was part of his week of inauguration made this particular Into the City program very special,” said Sam Miglarese, assistant director of community affairs. “The fact that he was willing to kick off... his week of inauguration activities taking up a full day of his time and energy to be with Duke students as they lived out the values of citizenship in their various work sites.”
Brodhead and Durham Mayor Bill Bell, addressed the participants before they scattered to 22 community service sites around the city.
“Duke has been an excellent partner for the city of Durham,” Bell said, urging students to take advantage of the many opportunities available within Durham and praising the strength of Duke and Durham’s town-gown relationship.
Brodhead noted that Saturday was the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, telling students that works of construction have the power to undo works of destruction. He further encouraged students to learn from the people they would work with and to help others learn from them by bringing “creativity and energy” to their sites of service.
Brodhead then donned a pair of work gloves, chatted with several students and departed to the Walltown Children’s Theater in the Crest Street neighborhood. He also visited three other sites, concluding at a fish fry at the AIDS Community Residents Association.
Sophomore Erika Collins, who volunteered at Walltown Park, was positive about her group’s efforts to remove litter from a creek. “There was a lot of glass, and it was good to be able to clean up,” she said. She added that the citizens of Durham appreciated the service of Duke students. “It was good for them to see that there are Duke students who care and want to help the community.”
Senior Alex Vargas was enthusiastic about the program. “The people were very friendly to us,” he said. A.J. White, president of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, praised the event, saying it was “nice seeing everyone from different parts of the campus, and it was a fun experience.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.