Northern New Jersey Alumni Chapter and Undergraduates Spread Holiday Cheer to a Local Shelter

Gettysburg and Princeton Sigs, pictured here, join the Northern New Jersey Alumni Chapter to volunteer at Rescue Mission of Trenton, New Jersey, on Nov. 18, 2017.
Members of the Northern New Jersey Alumni Chapter wanted to be more engaged with the people who would benefit the most from their annual volunteer day, which was to take place the Saturday before Thanksgiving. As a result, on Nov. 18, the chapter members visited the Rescue Mission of Trenton, New Jersey, a shelter that houses people recovering from drug addiction, along with those who had been previously incarcerated.
“One of the benefits of going to a place like this is that we got direct exposure to the people we were helping,” says Order of Constantine Sig and Central Pennsylvania province Grand Praetor Bill Sapoch, DICKINSON 1984, who explains that in years past, the Sigs instead volunteered at a local food bank. “At the food bank, we didn’t come into direct contact with anyone who [we were] helping out.”
Sixty Sigma Chis, including undergraduates from Gettysburg College and Princeton University, took part in the volunteer event, sorting and restocking clothing donations to be given to those at the shelter.
They heard testimonials from Niki Graham, an employee of the organization, who wrote an email to Sapoch expressing her gratitude for the connections the Sigs made with those at the rescue mission. She wrote, “The sense of hope that it gave our men is priceless.”