Service Day

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the student service committee setup a Service Day for the Jia (thanks Amiyah for the planning and Madison for the snacks).  Our project was to pick up trash at the beach.  So at noon on Saturday, we boarded a bus for a 1.5 hour drive to the coastline south of Shanghai.  We met up with about 150 Chinese university students and walked to the "beach" - no sand or umbrellas here.  The area was a shoreline and a water-break which was packed with 50% bamboo and 50% trash.  We represented Pepperdine well by taking a bluetooth speaker and playing Taylor Swift and other popular American artists for the crowd of workers while we all picked up trash.  Everyone loved it.  Some of the Chinese students even sang along with our students.  The work effort lasted a few hours, then we headed back to the Jia.  Thanks to the 6 students who volunteered their precious Saturday free time.  Feels good to give back to the community where we live and work.  ​