By Elise Goitia '18 and Elisabeth Zarnoti '17

For Knox College's fourth annual Day of Service, an event meant to engage Knox students with the local community, student volunteers started their day by setting out to different locations in Galesburg.

Organized by Knox's AmeriCorps VISTA representative Kelsey Witzling, Day of Service garnered a total of 139 service hours from the 43 volunteers who offered their time and effort.

"We're building community ties for the future of this town and the school," said Jack Faulkner '18, who volunteered at Nielson Elementary. "I want to be one of those people who makes an effort to make that happen."

Students spent their day volunteering at Knox Prairie Community Kitchen (KCPK), Safe Harbor Family Crisis Center, Discovery Depot Children's Museum, and Galesburg Civic Art Center. They assisted with any task available, from cleaning the train caboose at the Discovery Depot to organizing new books for Nielson Elementary.

"Sometimes it seems that Knox is over there, in its own little world, and Galesburg is over here, but Knox students are a part of our community," said Amanda Giles, Discovery Depot assistant executive director. "I think it's important for students to help and meet people, and see what Galesburg has to offer."

"We tend to get caught up with our classes and our lives on campus, but we need to break the Knox bubble and not be afraid to participate in the Galesburg community," said Sofia Tagkaloglou '18, who volunteered at KCPK's Spring Cleaning.

After volunteering in the morning, Student Senate hosted a community carnival open to the Galesburg community.

Students ran kid friendly booths and featured creative activities like button making, henna, bike generated smoothies, and a bean bag toss.

Songs from The Lion King and Frozen played over the Memorial Gym speakers, and those who made their own ribbon wands expressed themselves with interpretive freestyle dance. The event concluded with dance and musical performances by Knox and Galesburg community members, children's yoga, and story time.

All proceeds donated from the Community Carnival went toward local non-profit Asha for Life, an organization dedicated to providing resources for victims of sexual slavery and educating the public about the prevalence of human trafficking.