By Daniel Johnson, Investigative Reporter
Inaugural CNMunity day attracts many students, orgs
The Executive Council of Students is trying to create a semi-annual CNMunity Day, since the first event received so much support, Stephen Martos, Criminal Justice major and president of ECOS, said.
The event gathered about two dozen student volunteers from student organizations to help at four local non-profit organizations: Contact Tree New Mexico, Rio Grande Community Farms, Restore and Mandy’s Farm, he said.
“Our new goal is to make it a bigger and better event and hopefully have it held twice a year,” he said.
Some of the participating student organizations were Anthropology club, Phi Theta Kappa-Alpha Upsilon Chi, Chemistry Society, American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Art Club, TRiO Achievement Group and Math League, Martos said.
Patrick Byers-Smith, Systems Administrations major and TRiO Achievement Group member, said the experience was awesome because it gave him an opportunity to put in hard work at a site that grows food for the local community.
“We worked together well as a team to make a difference in our community and that made all the hard work worth it,” he said.
Letisha Bustamante, Digital Media major and member of AISES, said she had a blast participating in an event that she feels is a really beautiful thing.
“I feel outstanding because of all this,” she said.
Getting more people together and doing the event again would be a great idea, she said
She has used the experience to help her in planning an organization that does events similar to the CNMunity day on a regular basis, she said.
Tiffany Ruelas, an Anthropology major who is a member of the Anthropology Club and Phi Theta Kappa-Alpha Upsilon Chi, said the event was enjoyable and really rewarding.
“It gave us an opportunity to work with a bunch of different people and I really loved being able to play with the baby goats as a reward,” she said.
Chandra Germain, Anthropology major and member of the Anthropology Club, said working in that kind of environment was a new experience, but well worth it.
“I liked it and I would love to participate in something like that again because it was fun, but at the same time I learned that community service is not easy thing to do,” she said.
Otto Mossberg, a Biology major who is a member of the Math League and Chemistry Society, said everything went well and a lot of good work was done.
It was a lot of fun to be able to put the spirit of Engineering into community service, he said.
“To solve problems using tools that I have learned felt very rewarding,” he said.
Tim Torres, a Chemistry and Engineering major who is a member of the Chemistry Society, Chess Club, Math League and Phi Theta Kappa-Alpha Upsilon Chi, said being able to apply knowledge that he has learned to the real world was beneficial not only to the community, but also in keeping him motivated in continuing on with his studies.
“When you put forth an effort in helping the community, it gives you the ability to see what you have learned firsthand,” he said.
The volunteers put in five hours of hard work, but they all made new acquaintances and connections in the process of helping the community, he said.
“I think ECOS putting this all together was cool, but other organizations should step up and help with the planning and setup of the event in the future,” Torres said.
Martos said there is always room for improvement, but the amount of people who came out for CNMunity day was great.
In the future, information about the event and the available volunteer sites will be available sooner, he said.
“I was impressed and deeply touched with the turnout and the work that we accomplished for the community at this event,” he said.
All of the participating organizations agreed that they are willing to participate in something like this again and will try to get more people involved for the next event.
For more information about ECOS and upcoming events, email ecos@cnm.edu.
