“FIRST” Students Connect at Community Celebration

West Scranton High School graduate Rocco Leonard ’29 knows his way around Scranton.

He also recognizes that his journey in his native city is far from over — with more to learn, more to experience and more ways to give back.

Leonard and 50 other students, including 40 fellow rising first-year students, spent five days before classes started helping area nonprofit organizations with The University of Scranton’s Center for Service Social Justice (CSSJ) First-Years Involved in Reflective Service Together (FIRST).

“I joined this program because I wanted to feel more attached to the community,” Leonard said.

Leonard and his fellow volunteers achieved that connection Friday, Aug. 22, when FIRST and Friends of the Poor co-hosted the inaugural Community Fun Day at Novembrino Park.

Hundreds of community members — many of them children — attended the event, which included face-painting, splash pads, free food and school supplies.

There were also numerous games, including cornhole, ring toss, putt-putt golf, Jenga and Skee-Ball.

“I think this is great,” said Kenya Snyder, operations director for Friends of the Poor. “This year, Pat Vaccaro (CSSJ director) and Avianna Carilli (FIRST coordinator) came to us with this idea. We thought it’d be nice to have a fun day for the community and look at this turnout — it’s amazing.”

The group of FIRST volunteers includes locals, like Leonard, as well as people like Myranda Chamorro ’29, of Long Island, New York.

“I love putting myself out there, I love helping others, I love doing service,” Chamorro said. “Signing up for this program, I had no idea what I was going to do. But I do not regret it at all. I made a ton of new friends. I started helping out my community even before school started. So, it was great to get out of the house and be a part of something.”

While each FIRST volunteer has a memory and activity they’d call their favorite part of the week — Leonard’s was Mock Olympics in the evening at the University’s Retreat Center at Chapman Lake — they all agreed Friday’s Community Fun Day was the perfect way to end it.

“People that met only five days ago have now made lifelong friendships,” Leonard said. “I want to see these people in the future. I want to see them grow up and I want to be alongside them.”