Title:Hoyas Give Baxa Puts Service Ideals to Work

Above: Club of Los Angeles Tree Planting for Arbor Day 2018 Celebration

It’s April 28, one of the first spring-like Saturday mornings in New York City this year. Riverside Park, a four-mile-long strip of green that hugs the Hudson River on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, is bursting with runners, bikers, and strollers.

Alongside the trail, more than 20 people are digging out an irrigation line from its winter hibernation and bagging trash. Each sports a blue t-shirt emblazoned with “Hoyas Give Baxa.”

The day marked the Alumni Association’s seventh annual Hoyas Give Baxa—a day for Georgetown regional clubs across the world to take on community service projects. From Houston to Hong Kong, Austin to Boston, San Diego to San Juan, Puerto Rico, 23 clubs organized 25 service events. In all, more than 235 Georgetown alumni and family members participated.

The New York Club mustered not only the park cleanup crew but also volunteers to help at a soup kitchen.

“The clubs support events that are specific to their community’s needs,” says Sam Sanders (C’07, G’13), director of regional engagement, noting the Club of Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Maria relief service project.

Sanders joined the Club of Detroit’s 13 volunteers as they helped with construction and landscaping at one of Detroit’s Tiny Homes, the Motor City’s project to provide a pathway to home ownership for some of its poorest residents. Hoya volunteers got shout-outs from passersby (as well as some unsolicited basketball advice for Coach Ewing).

At only a year old, this was one of the Detroit Club’s first projects. “To have 13 volunteers is impressive,” Sanders says.

Like Detroit, the New York park cleanup attracted alumni from several decades. “It’s great to have a multigenerational event—some alumni brought their families,” says Carolina Caballero (C’13) who, as club service chair, organizes monthly service opportunities. “People really clicked. There was lots of chatting,” she adds.

The blue Hoyas Give Baxa t-shirts attracted many people to ask about the activity and to say thank you, Caballero reports. “Even a Villanova alum,” she adds.

Twenty-three Georgetown clubs participated in April’s Hoyas Give Baxa service events: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Fairfield County, (Conn.), Fort Lauderdale, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Research Triangle, (N.C.), San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Washington, D.C.