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Cornell Cares' community service project helps alum <br />'re-create' himself

By Richard Marin  |

February 7, 2008

This was Big Red in the Big Apple Week and while I chose not to attend the gala at Cipriani (being very busy and self-absorbed and not wanting to answer too many questions about what I was up to these days), I did decide to participate in the Cornell Public Service Center activities (Jan. 26). While I waited to meet up with Rob Hellman '76 and Deb Gellman '75 at the Cornell Club, I thumbed through the latest copy of the Cornell Chronicle and read an article about President [David] Skorton talking with transfer students and suggesting that the best way to deal with a transition might be to get involved in community service to both make friends and to help others at a time when one is inclined towards excessive self-reflection and/or loneliness. 

I was assigned to group six, and about 20 of us piled into a minibus and went the dozen blocks in the frigid cold to the Cornell Cooperative Extension offices on 34th Street. There we made "Surgi Dolls" for Project Sunshine. Surgi Dolls are cloth dolls in multiracial colors that are given to children facing surgery and are used by their doctors to draw on to explain the upcoming procedure. The young patients keep the dolls during their stay at the hospital and then take them home when they leave. We were told that they provide a great deal of comfort to the children.

We were given cloth, paper patterns, scissors, needle and thread and kapok with which to stuff the dolls. Having just been to the New York Tenement Museum and seen the early New York City sewing industry, I had an added perspective on the task at hand. We were shocked to learn that it took on average two hours to make a doll and were determined to better that time. After four hours, the 20 or so of us produced 41 Surgi Dolls (one more misshapen than the next) proving that ... it took about two hours apiece to make the dolls and that sewing is not as easy as it looks. We nevertheless had fun doing it and felt good about our efforts.

I couldn't help thinking back on that Chronicle article and David Skorton's comments. As a Wall Street veteran of many years, I, like many of my colleagues, have been a casualty of the recent subprime debacle. While not having committed any error of commission, it is hard not to ponder whether there was any omission in anticipation of the debacle. I have been totally focused for months now on putting together an acquisition to initiate the next chapter of my career. This intense focus has taken me into practically a 24-7 mode of focused work that is hard to deny is anything other than self-absorbed. I took the time to engage in Cornell Cares for the very reason President Skorton advised transfer students to consider similar activities … and I must say, he nailed it. I can think of no better way to re-create oneself than to focus on work to help those less fortunate and to give something to others as a break from working hard on one's own projects.

I have always said that I get more from my service to Cornell than I give. This may seem like a politically correct sound bite, but here was a perfect example of how true that sentiment really can be. The five hours I spent under the organization of Cornell Cares was fun, refreshing, motivating and most of all rewarding on many levels. I hope more alumni choose to discover the very tangible and personal benefits of being of service to Cornell and participating in the Cornell-organized service activities.