As many students, staff and residents know, this past weekend Binghamton University hosted the 32nd annual CHOW Walk. Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse has been a resource for needy and hungry families since 1976 by providing over 130,000 pounds of food each month. One of its biggest events of the year is the CHOW Walk which allows the community and Binghamton students to make a positive impact on their very own neighbors. Volunteering on the walk was amazing as I was able to witness hordes of people, townies and students alike, taking loops around the Brain in frigid temperatures. CHOW boasts of past walks to have had over eight hundred walkers, most of whom are members of the local community. What I saw on Sunday were not policy makers writing legislation to increase the accessibility of food or zealous protesters pushing for a cause; instead I saw families and friends having fun strolling through campus and enjoying a meal afterwards. Many of the walkers were just moms and dads who took a couple of hours out of the day to take their kids out for a walk. Each person may have had different reasons for attending the walk, whether deemed "good" or "bad" but together as a community they were still able to show an unanimous support for the program. I'm sure that the walk was an opportunity for many slacktivists to do their good deed just as sure as I am that it was an opportunity for many activists to really help the community. But in the end, to what extent does the intentions of these two types of participants really matter? I believe that if at the end of the day, the community has been made even a little bit better, then motives and intentions of each participant should not really affect the significance of the change.
The recent focus on the Ice Bucket Challenge also calls to attention the role of intentions in furthering a good cause. There is probably way more people that did it for the likes then those who would admit. However, the fervor brought on by all these videos really helped raise awareness and funds to ALS. Would the impact be as big if people did not do it for the likes? We don't know but we do know the ice bucket going viral really pushed ALS into the spotlight. Ultimately, the goal isn't to totally discredit the value of individual motives in civic engagement but to question its constitution in the future of the community as a whole.
I totally appreciate your stance that "if at the end of the day, the community has been made even a little bit better, then motives and intentions of each participant should not really affect the significance of the change." I often find myself struggling with the same issue. We want everybody to be conscious about the "good" things they are doing, but I most often feel as if this is an unrealistic expectation. There's just no way to get every person ever to think deeply about the things they are doing, its too inconvenient. So I feel like charities almost need to play off this inevitable fact sometimes and use it to their advantage, making their cause as simple and accessible as possible so that as many of those people who will never put in the time to understand exactly what they're doing can donate as possible.
ReplyDeleteI really like your critique of a widely accepted campus and community event. I think the CHOW walk is the one volunteer event that almost everyone knows about on campus and many find their way to the East Gym the morning of. You make a great comment that there were no policy changers present at the walk but the support of those who walked was just as important. It is definitely important to realize that not everyone is going to change the world by implementing hard hitting legislation, but though some may consider it slacktivism, supporting a cause can be just as valuable sometimes. I also really enjoyed the ending of your blog with the critique to question the future of a community as a result of activism. I often think people forget that the end result of civic engagement is the betterment of the whole community, and in the end (just as you said), if you improve the community by a small margin, it is still worth it.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate the way you looked at an event and organization that is so important to the Binghamton community. I tend to find myself thinking about service and activism the same way you do: is it bad if people are participating in fund raisers and community events for the 'wrong' reasons? Whether someone walked in the CHOW walk so they can add a few more hours to their service log or because they truly wanted to support the organization, they still participated and helped raise money for an amazing cause. I have found myself looking back at some of my past volunteer experiences and have noticed that there have certainly been times when I was more interested in the 'slactivism' aspects of the service. However, I've noticed that I've grown out of that mind set and I think that is when service becomes civic engagement. Who can say why someone else is participating in a certain event, but I'd like to think that even if its for a 'slactivist' reason, they're still making a difference in some way.
ReplyDeleteI have chosen to go back and write about your blog, Jieni, because I wrote quite a bit about CHOW in my issue area paper. I like that you raised the question of what the extent the intentions of these two types of participants (slacktivists, activists) really mattered. I think that a fundraiser such as this is greatly beneficial, opposed to simply giving canned and perishable food to the organization. Allowing CHOW to raise money gives them more freedom to purchase items that are most beneficial to the community. I also agree with you that at the end of the day, the community has been made at least a little bit better. For this particular event, the motives and intentions of each participant should not really affect the significance of change in this case. Money is being raised, and the reason people are giving it in this case is irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteYou made a good connection by bringing into the discussion the ice bucket challenge. In this case awareness was mainly raised. I definitely agree that people’s motives for the challenge was more so to get more likes on their Facebooks. Ultimately, both causes raised awareness and money. I liked that you used the example of the CHOW walk because it is a local community effort compared to the international community effort of the ice bucket challenge.