More Than 1,000 Seaver College Chapel Students Volunteer to Support Local Wildfire Relief
Approximately 1,200 first- and second-year undergraduate students in Seaver College’s Chapel program partnered with the University’s Hub for Spiritual Life and the Community Engagement and Service team to pack hygiene kits during their quarterly worship gathering on Wednesday, February 19. The care packages assembled at this event will be distributed to those in need after the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires, which swept through Los Angeles in January.
Seaver College students alongside their care packages
“Our overarching goal as a program is to invite and engage students in a conversation about the good life from a distinctly Christian perspective,” says CJ Davenport, Seaver College’s Chapel program manager. “Core Chapels offer us a space to reflect, together, as a body of more than 1,200 people. As a team, we are always looking for new ways to engage in a grand conversation about the good life. Bringing our students out of their seats and onto the stage with us is more than making a hygiene kit. It’s a physical invitation into the conversation—no words are necessary; just hands to pack the kits and smiles to pass around as we reflect on our role in supporting the community.”
Students packed 1,200 hygiene kits complete with toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body wipes, soap, deodorant, sanitizer wipes, razors, and encouragement cards drafted by the undergraduates themselves. The Chapel program invested a portion of its budget to acquire the goods needed for the project. Student donations paid for additional items included in the care kits.
A student drafts a care card
In lieu of their typical Core Chapel, which includes worship music and a devotional message, undergraduates flooded into Firestone Fieldhouse, collected drawstring bags, and began filling them with the items listed above. The hygiene kits will be shared with local organizations on the ground in fire-affected communities. Specifically, Seaver will be partnering with Boys and Girls Club Third Space, the Malibu Foundation’s Community Closet, and Composed Giving to distribute the care packages within their networks of need. Pepperdine is also connecting directly with families, LAUSD schools, and YMCAs to hand out these essential hygiene products.
Although the format of the chapel service was out of the ordinary, the purpose behind its service-oriented theme resonated with students.
“It is a really special experience to see the Pepperdine community come together and support those affected by the fires,” says Sophia Welch, a student leader within the Chapel program. “We have all been affected in some way and can see the need of our community now more than ever. For me, this event provided an opportunity to share God’s love, give back, and make an impact bigger than we will ever know, and that is incredibly fulfilling.”
Students carry a boxes of care packages
Service is a foundational element of Seaver College’s Chapel program. With a curriculum built around the themes of love, truth, goodness, and beauty, first- and second-year students explore the Christian faith through a variety of perspectives. In order to enrich this experience, the Chapel program began planning a day of service during the fall semester alongside the University’s Hub for Spiritual Life and its office of Community Engagement and Service. However, once wildfires ravaged Southern California, the two departments decided to focus on serving their struggling neighbors.
“It is a wonderful opportunity for students to have a service project as a part of Core Chapel because it allows them to put ideas into action,” says Christin Shatzer Román, director of Community Engagement and Service at the Hub for Spiritual Life. “Through this event, I hope students are reminded that service can be done in small gestures. With the service efforts of everyone combined, we will serve more than 1,000 people, even though each student is making only one care kit. The individual contribution is minor, but the collective effort is significant.”