8th Dimension

Easter Egg Hunt

2008-04-14T14:12:00.006-04:00

On Saturday March 22, 8^th Dimension hosted its annual Easter Egg Hunt for children from the surrounding community. The forecast predicted cloudy skies and even rain, but the skies were clear and the sun was shining for this kid-favorite 8^th Dimension event. At 11:30am, parents and children (many clad in bunny outfits or wearing bunny ear headbands) gathered together in Founders Great Hall for some refreshments and arts & crafts with Haverford student volunteers, eagerly waiting for the egg hunt to begin. While the children decorated their own Easter egg bags with stickers, markers and glitter, Haverford student volunteers hid Easter eggs in trees, behind rocks or in the grass.

At noon, we asked the parents and children to gather outside Founders Great Hall. After junior Gili Freedman warmed up parents and children with an initial game of Simon Says, she divided them up according to the age of the children. There were two hunts: one on Lloyd Green for kids ages 2-4, and one behind Barclay Hall for kids ages 5-10.

Around 12:15pm, the toddlers lined up on the sidewalk on Lloyd Green and the older children lined up on the sidewalk in front of Barclay Green. With “Simon Says: 1…2…3…GO!!”, the hunt commenced. Dozens of toddlers and young children ran as fast as they could to collect the hundreds of colorful Easter eggs scattered across Lloyd Green and Barclay Beach, as parents and Haverford student volunteers cheered them on.

Five minutes later, the grass was egg-free once again and happy, excited children walked away with their parents, opening the eggs to find yummy jelly bean treats inside (check out the video here).

Gone in a flash! 8D’s annual Easter egg hunt is definitely a favorite of both Haverford student volunteers and children from the community alike!

Student Run Project: AIDS Service Network

2008-02-06T14:52:00.000-05:00

As a follow up to our feature on the AIDS Quilt, here's a profile of ASN, the group that was most directly responsible for bringing the quilt to Haverford, provided by Hilary Mislan:

Bringing the AIDS Quilt to Haverford
AIDS Service Network worked with 8th Dimension, the Women's Center, and many interested students in brining 100 squares of the AIDS Quilt to Haverford for World AIDS Day. The display was the largest in the Philadelphia area in 10 years, and it was certainly very beautiful. It was a lot of hard work, and it was great that so many Haverford students were able to enjoy this beautiful memorial. To go along with the AIDS Quilt, ASN members also facilitated a "Conversations du Jour" with the CPGC, answering people's questions about AIDS and raising issues for discussion.

Gay Bingo
The AIDS Service Network volunteered at this event, which is a fund-raiser for the AIDS Fund. Bingo games are run by some fun and wild drag queens, and Haverford students help out by selling special game cards and raffle tickets. The monthly event is always a fun time, and some ASN members try to make it each month!

MANNA Pies
Thanks to lots of hungry Haverford students and staff, we sold 81 pies this year for MANNA, an organization that delivers meals to people who are homebound with AIDS and other debilitating illness.

AIDS Quilt Reflection

2008-02-04T15:44:00.000-05:00

The long awaited finale to our three part series on the AIDS Quilt is finally here! Hilary Mislan, one the event's student organizers, shares her thoughts:

AIDS Service Network worked with 8th Dimension, the Women's Center, and many interested students in brining 100 squares of the AIDS Quilt to Haverford for World AIDS Day. The display was the largest in the Philadelphia area in 10 years, and it was certainly very beautiful. It was a lot of hard work, and it was great that so many Haverford students were able to enjoy this beautiful memorial. To go along with the AIDS Quilt, ASN members also facilitated a "Conversations du Jour" with the CPGC, answering people's questions about AIDS and raising issues for discussion.

This display at Haverford was very different from the other, much smaller ones that I have been a part of in the past. The publicity committee did a tremendous job advertising the Quilt on campus, and it was great to see so many Haverford students come out to see it. I think a lot of the students were very moved by it- I know I always am. For some people, especially
those who don't know very much about AIDS or who haven't viewed the Quilt before, it can be a troubling or overwhelming experience to see the Quilt and think about all the lives that have been lost. I think the Quilt is a really beautiful memorial to those we have lost from AIDS. While another big display like this one won't be happening at Haverford for a while because of all the time, energy, and money involved in bringing it, I was proud to be a part of this display and I think it was a great success.

AIDS Quilt a success!

2007-12-13T00:45:00.001-05:00

The weekend before last, from November 30th to December 2nd, 100 panels of the AIDS Quilt were on display in the Fieldhouse at Haverford. I mentioned the support that this event had from the Haverford community, and the coverage of it was no exception. Check out a story about the display that appeared on Haverford's website, and even better, watch the video, also on the Haverford site. Stay tuned as the semester winds down for more thoughts on the Quilt display, and a few more profiles of our student run projects!

2007-11-29T16:54:00.000-05:00

THE AIDS QUILT COMES TO HAVERFORD!

We've had a lot of great events so far this year, but it's fitting that the AIDS Quilt Display is the final one of the semester, especially this year when we'll have 100 panels instead of 10. I'm excited about it for two reasons. First of all, the organizational process has really brought out the best in the Haverford community. A lot of students have been working hard to organize, advertise, and fundraise for months, and many more will be volunteering over the weekend. Furthermore, the Quilt Display was made possible in large part by generous monetary donations from Students' Council, President Emerson, and other campus organizations, not to mention the administration's donation of the Fieldhouse for an entire weekend, since Founders is not big enough to house 100 panels. Haverford has come together to support this important cause, and I think that says a lot about this school and its values.

The AIDS Quilt Display is not about Haverfordians showing off their values abstractly, however. The second reason I'm so excited for the display is because of its concrete importance. For many people, the display will get them thinking about a global issue that perhaps they did not believe had any real bearing on them or their life. For those who have lost friends, family or loved ones to AIDS, it will facilitate rememberance and commemoration, perhaps even more so who will be able to see the panel of their loved one. Finally, not only will many, many people see this display since it is a major regional event, but everyone who sees it will be joined in solidarity with those around the country and the world who have experienced tragedy caused by AIDS.

As the semester comes to a close, I hope to use this space to post reflections about the Quilt from various community members, so continue to check back. In the meantime, the opening ceremony is tomorrow, November 30th, ath 7 p.m., and President Emerson will speak. The display will continue all day Saturday and Sunday morning. Please take time to stop by at some point, we would like as many people as possible to see the quilt. I want to end with some statistics that demonstrate why we should care about AIDS:

Worldwide:

Number of people living with HIV in 2006:
Total: 39.5 million (34.1–47.1 million)
Adults: 37.2 million (32.1–44.5 million)
Women: 17.7 million (15.1–20.9 million)
Children under 15 years: 2.3 million ( 1.7–3.5 million)

People newly infected with HIV in 2006:
Total: 4.3 million (3.6–6.6 million)
Adults: 3.8 million ( 3.2–5.7 million)
Children under 15 years: 530,000 (410,000–660,000)

AIDS deaths in 2006:
Total: 2.9 million (2.5–3.5 million)
Adults: 2.6 million (2.2–3.0 million)
Children under 15 years: 380,000 (290,000–500,000)

United States:

421,861 people were living with AIDS in 2005
16,323 people died from AIDS in 2005
526,347 people in total had died of AIDS by 2005

8th Dimension's Hunger Week

2007-11-29T01:16:00.000-05:00

The week before Thanksgiving was 8th Dimension's annual Hunger Week, featuring two popular events: the Hunger Auction, and the OXFAM Dinner. The Hunger Auction takes place on the GO Boards, and students bid on food (and some non-food) items that have been donated by other students, faculty, staff, or local businesses. This year the event raised $1226, even more than last year, and featured some intense, last-minute bidding. We anticipate that the winning bidders will get enjoyment not only out of the items they won, but the money they contributed.

Our OXFAM Dinner was equally successful. 325 students signed up to skip dinner at the Dining Center on Friday, and then John Francone, the manager of the DC, generously donated all of the money that would have been spent on their meals to OXFAM. This added up to $1137.50, also bettering last year's amount. So thanks to everyone who participated in either event, and we look forward to more successful Hunger Weeks in the years to come!

Student Run Project: Books Through Bars

2007-11-09T13:12:00.000-05:00

Our Special Olympics project wasn't the only service happening at Haverford this past weekend. One of our Student Run Projects, Books Through Bars, was also active, spending their Saturday working with a Philadelphia organization of the same name to fill book orders from prisons across the country. Isabel Clark, one of the project's chairs, sent us some information and some pictures:

With a van full of volunteers and books, donated by the Haverford College Bookstore, we headed into center city Philadelphia to The A-Space, a community space where Books through Bars is located. Books through Bars is a non-profit organization that promotes literacy and education within prisons, as well as awareness of the current status of the educational systems in prison to those outside its walls. Letters with requests for books come from all fifty states with a variety of interests--anything from GRE prep books to mystery novels. Receiving nearly 2,000 letters a month, Books through Bars always need volunteers to help read letters and fill requests, which is what we did while we were there. Books through Bars operates every Tuesday night out of The A-Space, as well as the first and third Saturday of every month. We hope to take another trip in the spring after the success of this year's fall trip.

Special Olympics at Villanova!

2007-11-07T07:02:00.000-05:00

This weekend, 8th Dimension and the athletic department joined forces to send a huge group of Haverford student-athletes to volunteer at the Special Olympics. A special thanks to the athletic department for making sure this event was successful, and a note from staff member Gili Freedman, the event's main organizer, with more information:
On Saturday, November 3, one hundred eighty-eight Haverford varsity athletes volunteered with the Special Olympics, which is "an international nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals with intellectual disabilities to become physically fit, productive and respected members of society through sports training and competition" (http://www.specialolympics.org). Saturday was the second day of the Pennsylvania Special Olympics Fall Fest, which is held at Villanova University every year. The day began for Haverford athletes at 6:30 a.m. when the first group of forty-seven athletes left for Villanova on the bus. All of the Haverford students arrived to Villanova by 8:00 a.m. and immediately began helping at the various sites. At the Fall Fest, our athletes helped with soccer, volleyball, power lifting, and long distance running. They were judges, score-keepers, security personnel, and most importantly, they were there to cheer and support the Special Olympics athletes in their various athletic competitions. Participants found the time they spent to be both fun and meaningful, and we hope to continue Haverford involvement in future years!

Barclay Haunted House

2007-11-05T03:04:00.000-05:00

On Friday, October 26th, 8th Dimension held its annual Barclay Haunted House. Staff member Mitra Eghbal shares her thoughts:

The tortuous halls of Gummere might be riot-proof, and I maintain that Magill Library is the best building to survive a siege from a hostile neighboring kingdom, but Barclay is definitely the perfect place for a haunted house, as evidenced last Friday. Families from Haverford and surrounding neighborhoods can support this assertion.

By daylight Barclay looks innocuous enough; by night, those huge arching doorways make it look rather forbidding from the outside. Especially when it so happens that everyone in the dormitory has switched off their lights. Add to that a heavy rainstorm and we were all set.

Dante’s hell had nine levels; Barclay Haunted House is populated by just the sinners-in-training, so it has only four levels. But perhaps orange-and-black crepe paper streamers and plastic spiders were enough to tantalize the visiting children into a lifetime of evil. We can only hope. We can only hope that Beatrice is as benevolent as a tired, rain-drenched parent holding on to their child’s wooden sword as they are dragged by their offspring back into the haunted house for a third go-around.

The denizens of Barclay generously loaned us their home for a whole evening, and they decorated it, to boot. Though it must be said that the 8D staff members nearly had a heart attack when we saw that one hall had absolutely no decorations up fifteen minutes prior to the start of the event. When I came back later, the lights were all out and the residents of the hall were popping out of their rooms and shrieking at the kids. The Customs Person walked up to me and enthusiastically bellowed in my face until he realized I was not a five-year-old, then explained that they didn’t decorate the hall because you couldn’t see the decorations in the dark, anyway. I was initially skeptical, but in retrospect I must concede to its effectiveness, as I think this was the only hall the year that actually made a child cry. (Should causing children to cry make a hall successful or not? You decide.)

Whenever a howling ghost materialized in front of a kid, they would invariably ball up their fists, look the monster in the eye--chin quivering just a bit--and exclaim, “I’m…not… AFRAID OF YOU!” That is a great tactic and I want to try it out next time someone is intimidating me. Overall the kids held up pretty well… really, seeing the children in the clutches of demons worried me less than seeing the children attempt to fit entire popcorn balls into their mouths at the refreshment table in the “exorcized sanctuary” (Barclay lounge, our safe zone).

One sophomore resident of Barclay, replete with candy corn and face smeared with ghoulishly green paint, declared that it was nice to have an excuse to celebrate Halloween the way he used to as a kid. For me, though, the Haunted House wasn’t so much about regression as it was about accomplishment. I rejoice, for I have finally fulfilled my dream of commanding of a horde of zombies.

Why Service?

2007-10-24T19:47:00.000-04:00

With Parent’s Weekend and our annual panel on service at Haverford coming up in a few days, and with some of our biggest service events (Barclay Haunted House, Hunger Week, the AIDS Quilt Display) on the horizon, it’s a good time to think about what service means at Haverford. So, while this blog will often document how we do service, here are some ideas about why we do service.

Is there a moral obligation to perform service? That probably depends on who you ask, but what about helping out a family member or friend who really needs you? I think most people would answer yes to this one, because being there for someone when they need some kind of help is the basis of a healthy, meaningful relationship. But relationships need not be personal, or between just two people. We can have a relationship with others simply by being a part of the same community, be it a neighborhood, a city, a country, or a planet, even if we have never met them. So doesn’t it make sense to do what we can to make these relationships healthy and meaningful too, and improve these communities in the process? To me, this is the ultimate goal of service: that communities of all types and sizes, from two friends to the entire United States, can be improved with the attitude that we should help each other out without expecting anything in return.

Just because the spirit of service means that we should not expect compensation for our work, however, does not mean that we receive no compensation. In fact, it is impossible to do service and not gain anything. First of all, providing your time, energy, skills, etc. in a way that is valuable to others is an incredibly rewarding feeling in itself. Secondly, engaging in service is also an educational activity. It is a great way to learn about other people and other cultures, as well as our own feelings, ideas, and possible misconceptions about them. In fact, the name 8th Dimension was chosen for the community service office because at the time, academics at the time were divided into seven dimensions, and there was a feeling that to have a truly well rounded education, service was needed as the eighth dimension. So, the next time you do service, of any kind, think critically about it: what it means to you, the effect you're having on others, the long-term goals of the project. And, if you're in Philadelphia this weekend, come to McCrate Recital Hall, in Union Hall at Haverford, on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. We'll be having a panel discussion that will feature insights from students about service at Haverford.

Get Involved with the AIDS Quilt!

2007-10-09T13:01:00.000-04:00

As the year goes on we'll be using this blog to report on our various activities, post pictures, etc. But today I want to talk about what's going to be the biggest project 8th Dimension will be involved in this year: the AIDS Quilt. The AIDS Quilt is based in Washington, D.C., and is composed of 12 foot by 12 foot panels, each dedicated to the memory of someone who has died from AIDS and decorated by family, friends, and loved ones. These panels travel around the country so that they can be viewed without a trip to D.C., and every year, 10 of them come to Haverford. This year, however, 100 of them will be coming, which will make the display, already very emotional and moving, perhaps even more so. Instead of being displayed for a full week in Founders Hall, they will be displayed for a weekend, November 30th to December 2nd, in the Fieldhouse. Needless to say, we know that the display this year will allow for not just Haverford, but the entire surrounding community, to come together and think about an issue of national and global import, and we are thrilled that the Haverford community is acting as facilitator. Of course, this is a great undertaking, and there is a lot of planning and work to be done. If you are interested in being a part of the planning committees, or helping on the weekend of the event, please e-mail Sreela at snambood@haverford.edu. We need all the volunteers we can get, so don't hesitate. For any general questions about the display, contact Marilou Allen at mlallen@haverford.edu, and to learn more, visit the AIDS Quilt website. Please consider involving yourself in some way, this is an issue that needs attention, and the AIDS Quilt is a beautiful and powerful way to raise awareness.

Welcome!

2007-10-02T12:56:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,
Welcome to the brand new blog for 8th Dimension! As Haverford's community service organization, we'd like to keep you updated on the many opportunities for service both on and off campus. Hopefully this blog will be a way for us to do that in a way that's both informative and exciting. We'll be updating several times a week, so be sure to check back often and see what's going on!