Volunteers' move-in slogan: sweating for you
Sweating for you Two volunteers carry a rack of clothes up a staircase during freshman move-in day Aug. 23. Hundreds of students from multiple organizations volunteered to welcome and assist the new students and their families. Photo by Stephen Salpukas
Helping hand A volunteer gathers items to carry for a freshman during move-in day. Photo by Stephen Salpukas
It was an early Friday morning for the volunteers of Freshman Move-In Day, but that didn’t stop the teal-shirted students from smiling as cars began to fill the parking lots in front of the dorms.
Starting at 7:30 a.m., new students from all over the country came bearing boxes, bags and bins full of everything they will need for the upcoming year. Out in front of Yates, Monroe and the Green and Gold Village, volunteers were there to greet them.
“I love seeing all the new freshmen,” Tim Milbourne ’14 said. “It reminds me of when I was a freshman, getting helped by overly-enthusiastic upperclassmen. Gives me a sense of nostalgia.”
Milbourne, volunteering with the William & Mary Ruritan Club, was one of many students from other groups on campus, including Reformed University Fellowship, Catholic Campus Ministries and Greek Life, who helped out on Friday.
The volunteers are allowed to move back onto campus early in order to be in their dorms for freshman move-in day, and spend the rest of the week in their rooms before classes actually begin. Many of the volunteers, Milbourne included, said they liked getting to move in early.
“It’s a lot less crazy,” he added.
Claire Gillespie, ’16, agreed.
“I’m really glad I don’t have to do the first-day move in,” she said. “I like helping people, but when I was a freshman, it was really stressful. It was hot, it was scary and there were a lot of people running around yelling.”
This year, however, things were remarkably smooth. Even in the new Green and Gold Village, where car space was limited and parents had to keep moving, the process was fairly straightforward and there weren’t many problems. Freshmen went to check in, while volunteers took their things out of their cars and onto areas in front of the dorms, letting the cars move out and make room for others.
Shouldering everything from bean bags, shoes, dress racks and mini-fridges, these volunteers sweated away the early morning hours into the afternoon.
“Mini-fridges are the worst,” Chris Stephens, ’14 said. “They’re really heavy, and everyone who has one lives on the third floor.”
Everyone had their own reasons for volunteering, from simply wanting to move in early themselves, to giving back to the upperclassmen who helped them move in their freshman year, to just being the ones to greet the new members of the Tribe.
“And it’s fun,” Chandler Edgington ’15 added. “It goes really smoothly with all the help. All the parents and students are really grateful.”
Around noon, most of the freshmen had been moved into their dorms, and the volunteers were free to go. Free pizza was provided for lunch, and the hard-working students were able to put their feet up at last.
