Eastern Student Summer Lily Egan of Colchester Lends a Hand at Day of Giving

2014 Dec 8

Hundreds of members of the Willimantic community visited Eastern Connecticut State University on Nov. 26 for the eighth annual Day of Giving. Despite the day's inclement weather, Eastern's Hurley Hall bustled as usual, serving up hot Thanksgiving meals to community members who otherwise may not have had one.

Summer Lily Egan '15 of Colchester, CT, volunteered at the event, assisting with serving and picking up food and cleaning up afterward. Egan's major is Communication.

Sponsored by the Center for Community Engagement, the Day of Giving occurs in collaboration with the Covenant Soup Kitchen and other social service agencies in Willimantic, which help to promote and provide transportation to Eastern.

"I'm new to Willimantic. This is incredible. It says a lot about this university and the students," said Shawn Shambley, a Willimantic resident from New Orleans, LA. "The spread is delicious and free! Just awesome and humbling."

Another Willimantic resident, Sharon Wilson, said, "This is so nice of the college to offer this to the community. The food is wonderful and the people are great. This is perfect for people who don't have families or money to make a Thanksgiving dinner."

In addition to the dinner, which was served to more than 400 residents, Eastern students also coordinated a food drive that yielded more than 3,000 canned goods that were donated to the local soup kitchen and food pantries. Food pantry officials indicated those food items will last them into the summer months.