After 2,615 hours of service, Binghamton University’s chapter of Alpha Phi Omega can call itself a champion.
BU’s only co-ed community service fraternity received the Arno Nowotny National Service Award in December for the most well-balanced service program. This national honor is given every other year to an APO chapter with strong volunteer programs on campus, in the community, with the fraternity and with the nation. Judges also factored in the percentage of active participation in the chapter’s service program.
“They’re highly motivated, highly determined to really help out their fellow man,” said Joe Picalila, the chapter’s adviser and service coordinator. “Definitely a model chapter of our fraternity.”
It wasn’t necessarily the number of service hours they put in over the past two years that qualified them for the award, however, but the type of work.
“They have a breadth and a variety of service,” said APO regional director Michael Haber. “Most of our chapters do, but they have a particularly high amount of projects and variation. They help a lot of people in a lot of different ways.”
One of the chapter’s prominent projects was acting as “service mentors” for freshmen in the Hinman Learning Community’s class Practicum in Leadership and Community Service. In this debut course, the students served the local food pantry, a youth program, the Boys and Girls Club, Habitat for Humanity and more.
“In short, my sense is that the APO chapter at Binghamton is active and dedicated with high goals,” said Hinman faculty master Al Vos, who taught the course. “I hope that this coming fall we’ll be able to duplicate the good experience we had in fall 2008.”
For its 2007 Spring Youth Service Day, the chapter members read stories and made arts and crafts with children at the mall and Discovery Center. For National Service Week 2007, members volunteered at the Bowling Special Olympics. The chapter has also served food at the fundraising gala of Binghamton Students for Students International. Members traveled miles in local AIDS walks, and have sponsored blood drives.
The list goes on …
“Whenever I’m at an event, I just have so much fun. It’s just so great to be doing something good, but doing it with some of your closest friends,” said member Linda Torricelli, who was the service vice president in 2008. “You almost forget that you’re helping because you’re having a good time.”
Each year, APO’s national office puts together a convention for all the chapters. The 2,000 brothers that came in December made it the highest attended of the conventions. This was the first year the 9-year-old BU chapter attended.
“Winning this award was their way of saying hello,” Picalila said. “They made their presence known for sure.”
A committee of brothers and advisers decide on the bi-annual service winner. Of the 366 chapters, only nine submitted entries for the award this year. BU’s chapter submitted a 40-page report on their two years of work. The submission included service logs, letters of recommendation and clips of the chapter in the news.
“As I explained to them after, you have a tradition to hold up now,” Picalila said.