Volume CXXXIII, Number 4 September 28, 2001 f

Community Competition

Common Good Day blasted off with fanfare two years ago as a campus-wide exercise in community service, and it was a high-profile success. Most of the campus turned out on a Saturday morning to rake lawns, cook meals, and rebuild houses. The event was news because it was new; large-scale community service was then a rarity here.

This year marked the third annual Common Good Day, but the fanfare of 1999 was absent. Is the thrill gone? Part of the cause lies with the shadow cast over most normal, routine events these days; minds are understandably elsewhere. For whatever reason, Common Good Day flew under the radar for most students. Some of those who participated judged the day a qualified success. Many noted that their projects were overstaffed, that there was not enough community service to go around; some groups spent two hours or less at their sites. Common Good Day has the potential to be a much larger event than it was.

The silver lining is that Common Good Day may have been a casualty of its own success. From the start, the college houses have been consistently inspired to undertake community service projects of their own. Each house coordinates several service activities each year. Baxter House holds a well attended bike race annually for charitable purposes, and Howell House has sent weekly vans of students to a local animal shelter for years. Howell's residents were inspired to start that project in the fall of 1999, when the first Common Good Day was held.

Earlier this month, the college received a campus charter from Habitat for Humanity International. Working under the auspices of the "Bowdoin Builds" charter, students will have the opportunity to build housing in the Bath/Brunswick area as soon as the spring of 2002. Common Good Day is no longer the only game in town, and that's a welcome development. Community service is most helpful when it's an everyday occurrence, not
a pleasant surprise.