Brady Tramuta

Professor Lundy

Connections

26 October 2018

On October 22, 2018 I volunteered at the 2018 Ethel Lefrak Holocaust Education

Conference on Women, the Holocaust, and Genocide. It was a very unique experience to see

so many people come together to learn and relive this time in history. Although I only saw one

part of this conference, which was an award ceremony, I could tell how interested people were

in the topic as a whole and it was very unique to see. My community service consisted of

greeting all the guests at the door with a smiling face and asking them if they have their tickets

for this event. If they did, they would hand it to me and I would tell them to enjoy or to have a

nice night. Some actually stopped and had a conversation with me, which I very much enjoyed.

It is so important to give back in your community and help out whenever needed. I knew the

lady in charge of this conference needed a lot of help to make it all run smoothly, and I knew

that by me helping it would not only benefit her and her conference, but it would also benefit

myself. I learned new things that I didn’t know about the Holocaust and also got to hear an

amazing speaker. I enjoyed the back and forth conversation with people who I had never seen

or talked to before. I like meeting new people no matter the place or the time, because you

never know what things you could learn from them or about them during a short conversation. If

they did not have their ticket I would then direct them over to the table where my friend Julia

was sitting and they would be able to get their tickets there. People would come up to me

throughout this period and ask me certain questions about where the bathroom was, where they

could put their coat, etc. And I would gladly answer and help them on their way. Then, as the

award ceremony was going on I got to sit there and watch which was very interesting. My
favorite part about this was the questions that people asked at the end because I got to see how

much hearing this truly meant to them and how thankful they were to sit and listen to the award

recipient talk about her views and what she knows about the Holocaust. At the end, I stayed and

cleaned up everything that needed put away and made sure that no one left any of their

belongings behind, and if they did that we made sure it got to a safe place for them to eventually

get it back. No matter what your job or part is when it comes to community service or really any

aspect of life, it is important that you do it with confidence. It is important that you make the best

out of it and that everyone you come across you greet them with a smile and ask them how their

day is going. Those little things could be the part of their day that makes them smile. You saying

one nice thing could stick with them forever. I think this really stuck out to me during this

community service event because of the specific conversations I was able to have with different

people. You could tell how excited they were to come up and talk or even just ask a question.

Whenever I responded kindly and with a smile, they then wanted to continue the conversation.

You could tell that everyone at this award ceremony was highly intelligent and professional and

that is why it is important to go through events like this with confidence in yourself. Overall, I

really enjoyed volunteering for this conference and I look forward to doing other community

service opportunities in the future. I would love to do a variety of different community service

events whether it be helping out again at a conference like before, helping animals, helping at a

food bank, etc. I feel like no matter what type of event you are doing there is always something

you can learn from. Whether it’s just simply being nice or lending a helping hand to someone in

need. I think it is awesome that doing a community service project is a requirement for this class

and that other professors encourage it as well. It not only helps us grow as people but also

helps our community and school grow together.