Southwestern College students, faculty, and staff partnered with the City of Winfield and the Isle of Lights Board for their fourth annual Isle of Lights set-up day service project on Sunday, Nov. 12. 

According to Brae Wood, director of service learning at Southwestern College, about 400 students gathered around Island Park and put up various light displays and checked all the light bulbs to make sure they worked.

“It was an amazing day, and at the end of such a day, I sit in a lot of gratitude,” Wood says.  “As a service learning director who is committed to helping structure such experiences for our students; I love that there are various opportunities for students to make connections outside themselves through meaningful service whether those connections are to fellow teammates, to a deeper understanding of the community, to new community members who are great examples, or to the understanding of issues like why the Isle of Lights being free to everyone is important. Sunday was a great day.”

Joe Wood, Isle of Lights board member, says they are grateful for the assistance from Southwestern College.

“Isle of Lights has partnered with SC for set up for several years,” Wood says.  “As a board, we cannot thank them enough.  The students from various teams and organizations do a great job in supporting this community tradition.”

Leadership students Cameron Unruh and Mateus Varotti helped in all the planning details for this huge service project. They worked with student team leaders representing each group or team; and helped get everything in place so that groups could show up and know what they were supposed to be doing. 

One student likened the service project to a huge game of Tetris as they jig-sawed the pieces together to make the various light displays fit; especially the teams that found themselves with “missing directions” in their pile of supplies.

“I am a proud SC alum and Winfield citizen who loves our community and sees the work of committed community members highlighted in a great reciprocal relationship between SC and Winfield,” Brae Wood says.

The Isle of Lights is open nightly from 6 to 10 p.m., from Nov. 19 to Dec. 30.  There is no admission charge but donations are appreciated.