BY COLLEEN SHANAHAN
Lions’ Pride Online Editor

Courtesy of Saint Leo Public Relations

Veronika Ospina-Kammerer, SWK faculty on right, speaks with patient visitng with a therapy dog and therapy dog volunteer

Twice a year, the Saint Leo community comes together to lend a helping hand. Community Service day not only promotes the Benedictine values of Saint Leo, but is also allows students, faculty, and staff to give back to a community that could always use a helping hand and personally grow.

This semester, Saint Leo performed community service day in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Saint Leo was only one of many universities, communities, and organizations to honor the day through service. Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his life to securing not only equal rights for all, but to make the United States something everyone could be proud of: “We have an opportunity to make a better nation,” Dr. King said.

One of the sites that welcomed Saint Leo’s offer of a helping hand was the Edwinola Retirement Community. The Edwinola is a landmark in the Dade City community. It was originally opened in 1912 as a hotel. Currently, it serves as a retirement community for those who require assisted living and for those who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Like many establishments, the Edwinola doesn’t have time to do everything that the staff needs or wants to do for its residents.

Fifteen students, staff, and faculty signed up to assist the Edwinola in its day to day activities. Groups assisted the staff in taking down Christmas lights, helped with the housekeeping, helped filing and filling out forms, and some attended to the Alzheimer’s residents who enjoyed sitting around their hall and chatting. Singers from Saint Leo also stopped by and gave a performance for the residents. The residents enjoyed the singing so much that they demanded an encore, and they were rewarded with one more song.

Even though the students, faculty, and staff only had a limited amount of time at the Edwinola, their presence felt like so much more to both its residents and staff.

“I just don’t know how to say thank you,” Nila Premer, the activities director of the Edwinola, said.

“It is just amazing what these students have done for the wellness of the residents. It also takes a load off of the staff because we can’t always get what we want done. Today, my assistant activities director was out. These helping hands meant we got things done we normally can’t do because we don’t have the time. [For example] We had Christmas lights out that would have been there for another two weeks,” Nila said when asked what Community Service day meant for the Edwinola.

Community Service day for Saint Leo is bigger than just getting tasks accomplished. Students, faculty and staff leave the day with the feeling they were able to contribute to something bigger than themselves. With just a little bit of help, businesses and organizations across the community were able to share their respective missions and accomplish things that couldn’t have been done in the time it was without the outreach of the Saint Leo Community.

This semester, those students, faculty, and staff who gave to their community did not go away from the day empty handed. Saint Leo partnered up with Disney to give away free one-day tickets to any one of its parks. This giveaway was part of Disney’s “Give a day, Get a day” program offered nationwide.