Wingate, N.C.----The start of my W'Engage journey is much more than my trip to New Orleans, Louisiana Oct. 6-11. This fall break journey began when I was trying to decide if I wanted to be part of the very first class like this at Wingate University. As I decided to apply, I realized that I would be missing a home game if I was accepted into the program.
 
I went back and forth for days contemplating on whether I would rather do volunteer service in NOLA or spend my fall break cheering at a football game and probably napping and watching a lot of Netflix. Of course, I love to travel so I figured that I would give it a shot. I told my coach that if I were to be accepted, I would be missing the Tusculum at Wingate game. She was completely fine with it and on board with the service aspect of the class.
 
Fast forward to the first day of class: W'Engage. As I walk into the classroom, I see five other girls who I have seen around on campus, but have never spoken to them. I kept to myself…I even thought about dropping the class since I was going to be travelling with strangers. 'Who would I room with? Will they like me? Should I even do this?' These are all things I thought to myself in that first class session.
 
Everyone else seemed to know each other except for me. I was the lone ranger in this classroom. I was half listening to Dr. Clontz and half trying to decide if this would be worth my time. Over the course of the next six weeks, we would become closer and closer to the point that I was so excited to be travelling with my new friends. Over these six weeks, I went to the Union County Community Shelter where I worked to help prepare lunch for the residents. I will still continue this service as I finish out this semester.
 
In the days following my adventure, I am very eager to share my experience with everyone! Before going on this trip, I had to name three goals I wished to accomplish while I was gone. My first was to remove the stigma of homelessness from my mind. I thought homeless people were just lazy and didn't want to work for anything. My mind was quickly changed when we visited the Bethel Colony Transformation Center (BCTC).
 
While at BCTC, we walked by several men who were doing different jobs around the property. Next, we found ourselves sitting in a room with a lot of tables and chairs that looked like an eating area. Paul, our guest speaker, told us his testimony and all about the colony. Essentially, the BCTC is a place where men come after they find that their addictions, no matter the type, have left them homeless. These men have absolutely hit rock bottom and are surrendering themselves to the Lord.
 
The BCTC has a six-month program which helps men get back on their feet, while teaching them about the Bible and how they are children of the One True King. Paul drew a target on the whiteboard and said, "Our ideas are simple here. Think of it this way, the middle of the target is your mindset, this affects everything else about you. If your mindset is off, so will your attitude. Then your attitude will throw off your behavior. If you have the mindset of an addict, you will have the attitude of an addict, and you will behave like an addict. Here we change your mindset so that you believe you are a child of the One True King and your actions will follow."
 
This churned in my mind over the next several days. Paul then explained how they keep the place up and running. This narrative is one of the cool parts about this organization. They have a car wash and a snow cone shop. The profits from both of these businesses go straight to BCTC! They are preparing to open a coffee shop. This gives the men places to work while they are in the program. A thrift store is also an employment opportunity. The BCTC also has a place for women and a place for women with children. The women work at the thrift store and at the snow cone shop. The men primarily work around the colony and the car wash. This just goes to show that people who are homeless have sometimes just hit a rough patch and they need to be given a place that will help them get back on their feet and put them on the right path.

Later that day, we made our first appearance at Second Harvest Food Bank. This was a government-run food bank, so they have quite a few staff members working full time. This makes it a lot easier to keep everything pretty, neat and orderly. We were working with food that had been donated from food drives. We had a conveyer belt that made it super easy to sort things and keep everything flowing. Music was playing (loudly) and we had a huge fan blowing on us! This made the time go by super-fast and made everything bearable since we were standing pretty stagnant on a concrete floor. This was very different from what we would experience Saturday morning.
 
We hop in the van to drive over to Love in Action Food Bank. This is a faith-based, private food bank. As we walked in the door, I immediately saw a difference between a government-run and a faith-based food bank. As we walked into the back room with all of the food, we saw a mess. This is simply because Love in Action has a staff of only three people. None of the people working there are full time, they are simply volunteers. This makes it very difficult to really have a clean, neat space for the people who come to the food bank for help.

Ms. Gail Womack-Murray, director of Love in Action, was the only one there on Saturday and she had no idea we were coming to help her. As we worked to help clean the place up, I found myself outside sorting through clothes. There were two pallets of donated clothes which we condensed down to one! This made so much more room in the warehouse. As I got closer to being done with sorting, I found boxes upon boxes of books and other things. A lot of these things were trash and not able to be used, this made me sad because it seemed like people were donating their trash to people in need. This only made it harder to find things that could be used.
 
All in all, the things that were banged up and looked bad that were donated were more of a burden than a blessing. This made me re-evaluate for when I donate things in the future. I will always think about the things I saw (in New Orleans) before I donate something. As we finished there, we moved all of the pallets back inside and looked at what we had accomplished for the day. It wasn't much, but Ms. Gail was so thrilled that we had been there to help her when she thought she was going to be doing the work all by herself.
 
Sunday was our tourist day and we got to be true tourists in the French Quarter. We visited the New Orleans School of Cooking (yum!) and got to walk around and look at the historical part of the city. Later, we hopped back into the van and picked up Bob, director of MissionLab, the organization with whom we were partnering. He was in New Orleans when Katrina hit. I had always been intrigued with the disaster of Katrina and how the levees broke that day. Before Bob told us about the levees, I didn't know what they were. I knew they kept the water out, but I couldn't figure out how. I am always asking 'Why?' so of course when I think of Katrina, I always think 'Why did the levees break?' This was explained in great detail by Bob. He noted how they are making sure the levees won't break again. I am so happy this was explained to me so now I can stop worrying about why this happened and I can actually tell people what happened and how the levee system works. He showed us places that have rebuilt and places that still have not rebuilt this long after Katrina. This was an awesome afternoon for me!
 
Monday morning, we left the hotel by 8 a.m. We arrive at Second Harvest for our second round of volunteering. The first shift, we prepped green beans, carrots, potatoes and pizzas to be cooked. These were being made for kids that don't go home to a meal after school. We packed boxes upon boxes of juice boxes and crackers that would be given to the kids with their meals. We then cleaned the kitchen and grabbed lunch for ourselves while the corn, potatoes and chicken were cooking.
 
After lunch, we return to the kitchen for the second shift. This is when the food is packed into trays, sealed and put in the warmer to keep the food hot until it is packed to be delivered. As it was Columbus Day, many kids were out of school so we only packed less than half of a normal day's worth of meals. Usually about 1800-2200 meals are packed for students, but on this particular Monday, we only packed around 800. This took no time since Second Harvest has all these little contraptions and things to get the job done quickly. When the trays were packed, they were placed into the sealer and it spit them out on the other side. I was stacking the trays onto the pans to be placed in the heaters.
 
When we finished with the trays, we took a tour of the Second Harvest warehouse. 'Wow!' is all I have to say, this place was huge! I walked into the biggest freezer I had ever seen in my life and that's probably going to be the biggest freezer I ever encounter. Everything had a place…and it was all so neat. This place all together had to be six times the size of Love in Action, if not bigger. After our tour, we had the final step with the trays, to pack them in the bags for them to be delivered. This was an awesome feeling to know we literally helped from start to finish to feed 800 kids this day.
 
This was a great way to round up our trip and see that even with only the nine of us who attended this trip that we made an impact on New Orleans. I know that I helped to the best of my ability. Even though we were behind the scenes of the helping part, it didn't matter because at the end of the day, we knew we helped make a difference. It didn't matter if anybody had seen me working to help improve places, all that matters is that we were helping and we were made an impact.
 
The shirts we received from MissionLab say 'Syncopate.' If you don't know what syncopation is, it is a musical term for when you make the weak beats strong and the strong beats weak. This gives the music a completely different sound. We, as strong young women, humbled ourselves to serve others, to make the people in need stronger. This is something that everyone should experience…it will change your life.
 
BULLDOG CLUB CLAM BAKE SLATED FOR NOV. 4
 
The Wingate University Bulldog Club is hosting its sixth annual Clam Bake at the University Lake Friday, Nov. 4 (doors open at 6 p.m.). Everyone is welcome as the University celebrates Homecoming weekend. On the same day, the 41st annual Bill Connell Memorial Golf Tournament will be contested at Eagle Chase Golf Club. The shotgun start is slated for 9:30 a.m. Both the Clam Bake and the BCMGT benefit deserving student-athletes.

WINGATE UNIVERSITY
 
Wingate University, consistently ranked as a top 10 "best value" in the South by U.S. News & World Report, serves more than 3,100 students on three campuses in Wingate, Charlotte and Hendersonville, N.C. Founded in 1896, the University offers 35 undergraduate majors, 34 minors, 12 career concentrations, nine pre-professional programs, master's degrees in accounting, business, education, physician assistant studies and sport management and doctorates in education, pharmacy and physical therapy.
 
With a 14 to 1 student/teacher ratio, Wingate students gain the tools and support needed to excel in academics and apply that learning toward an extraordinary career and life. To view current news, video and story ideas, visit www.youtube.com/wingateuniversity. 
 
In addition to a robust intramural athletics program, Wingate student athletes compete in 22 NCAA Division II sports. The University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past 10 years. For more information, go to www.wingate.edu.
 
Wingate is first among NCAA Division II Academic All-America®-producing colleges in the 2000's with 86 selections. Among North Carolina's colleges and universities, Wingate is number one in this millennium with 86 Academic All-America® honorees. Wingate is tops among all SAC schools with 95 lifetime Academic All-America® picks. For more information on WU athletics, go to www.wingatebulldogs.com.

Editor's Note: Katherine Edwards is a sophomore cheerleader at Wingate University. The Piedmont High School graduate is majoring in Management. Katherine is the daughter of Richard and Donna Edwards.