In light of the holidays, Aid4Need, a service outreach program, is hosting a Service Activity Competition.

“Our organization is based on helping the community,” President of Aid4Need Rujula Padala said. “We made a competition to get the ideas from the members themselves and so they can contribute. Their idea can be a fundraiser or a donation idea.”

Participants in the Service Activity Competition create an impactful service activity that benefits their community. In exchange, the winner can earn $20 and all participants receive three service hours.

“The purpose of the competition is to come up with new creative ideas to add and possibly maybe use in the future of Aid4Need or other clubs as well,” Social Media Ambassador, sophomore Ashvita Suresh Kumar said.

The lack of diversity in volunteering activities found in clubs inspired Aid4Need to create this competition. This way, students can use their creativity to create engaging volunteer activities while giving back to their community. 

“This competition will try to make people think in the point of view of who they are helping and try to get them to think how to help them and what they need,” Suresh Kumar said. “This competition will ultimately benefit students and they will get a new perspective in what they’re doing and how  it really does help the community even if it seems small.”

Students such as junior Alisha Aggarwal are participating because they want to create an impact on the community no matter how big or small.

“I am very passionate about volunteering and making a difference in the community,” Aggarwal said. “I have already achieved the 100 hour service goal, yet I continue to volunteer as it brings joy to know I am helping others.”

For other students such as sophomore Medha Anasuri, this competition has made them more aware of people in need.

“I feel like we definitely overlook some of the small things in our lives such as entertainment and other basic needs,” Anasuri said. “Making the time to find out what these things are has definitely made me realize we have a lot more privileges than other people in this community.”

Participating students believe this competition will help them volunteer in their community in the future.

“It has made it easier for me to go to volunteer events because it has given me a perspective as to why I’m doing it in the first place,” Anasuri said. “It made me realize although it will look good for college and on my transcripts, it’s definitely more than that because it deals with real people and real problems and volunteering in general will help a lot of lives.”