This past week (March 20-24) was Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s (SAE) week of service. The fraternity organized and participated in various service events throughout the week, from Monday to Saturday.

Planning for the event began as early as the end of February, although they began thinking about when to have the week in the beginning of the semester.

Monday began their week as two groups of brothers went down to the downtown New Haven Soup Kitchen, to prepare and serve food. Tuesday a group of nine brothers went to the West Haven beach for a beach clean-up. They sectioned off the beach, with two brothers per section, and collected six trash bags before the end of the day.

Wednesday and Thursday brothers went to the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital to spend time with the patient’s creating arts and crafts and reading them stories. This was the first time the fraternity has done this, although it is the same hospital they host their Christmas toy drive to support.

“The hospital event was probably my favorite event that we ever had. We let the kids forget about why they’re at the hospital, it’s good for them to just forget about that and just be happy,” said Brian Hurley, Community Service Chair for SAE.

Arts and crafts time was on Wednesday, which consisted of “weave your wishes.” The children got to create quilts out of parchment paper, which they weaved designs into as they made wishes into the quilts. The SAE brothers that were there made their own quilt with their own wish which read, “Sigma Alpha Epsilon of the University of New Haven wishes the kids happiness and good health.”

“One girl was so happy to see us and I could tell she was smiling underneath her mask, quilting an A for her name,” recalls one brother, Nash Khairi. He continued saying, “Any kid who was able to come had such hopeful smiles and it made it all worth it. Making a difference in one child’s life means everything.”

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SAE also participated in a Habitat for Humanity event, initially scheduled for Friday, which was rescheduled for Saturday. In place of the Habitat for Humanity event a group of brothers volunteered at an NRA banquet dinner, helping to sell raffle tickets, clean up, set up, and fill out paper work from the auction. On Saturday brothers not only participated in the Habitat for Humanity event, they also participated in a clean-up for Timber Hill Farms. The clean-up was in anticipation of a ‘Boots for Buddies’ event coming back to the farm on April 1st, which works as an interactive event for children with special needs, allowing them to ride the horses. The brothers worked to clean and move hay, as well as anything else the farm needed to do to prepare for the event.

They also had a Bubble Soccer event planned to celebrate the successful week, but it was cancelled due to rain and rescheduled for April 1.

“Being a true gentleman is doing the greater good without recognition and with selfless intention,” said Khairi, reflecting on the week.

Hurley also reflected on the week and the reason he enjoyed planning it. “We love it because it really shows what we strive to become and what we strive to do on campus. It’s something that we strive to do every day. We strive to give back to the West Haven Community,” he said.