Paying It Forward
Sunday's StarTribune had a good story by staff writer Kim Ode entitled "A study in serving." It's about the Pay It Forward Tour, an activity started by students at the University of Minnesota four years ago to provide a worthwhile and fulfilling spring break experience for college students.
A diary by Tony Schuster, a student at the University of Minnesota, relates painting, housecleaning, trash pickup, and tree chopping in Peoria IL, Marietta GA, Blacksburg VA, and Washington DC. As important as the service projects was the sense of teamwork and relationship-building that the bus developed. A similar story was told in the Spring break diary of Kari Foley, also a UM student, whose bus went to Milan IN, Nashville TN, Louisville KY, and Canton OH.
The Pay It Forward Tour is organized by Students Today Leaders Tomorrow (STLF), whose website tells us that STLF "was initially founded by four college freshman as a student organization at the University of Minnesota. When a late night dorm room conversation turned into a vision to leave an impact on the world, the idea for the Pay It Forward Tour was created."
STLF now includes chapters on nine Midwestern college campuses. Counting this yeer's spring tour, over 1250 students have made service visits to more than 75 communities.
The national organization, headquartered in Minneapolis as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is completely organized and run by students, as are the individual chapters. The national runs several leadership development programs throughout the year.
The last paragraph on the "About Us" page is worth quoting in its entirely:
We realize that the Pay It Forward Tour is only nine days out of the year, and we realize that we can’t solve a community’s social issues in one service project. However, we do believe in the power that people united under a common purpose has on this world. We know that we can make a direct impact on thousands of people throughout the country through service, and we can never know what they will go on to accomplish in their life as a result. We know that we can make an even bigger impact on each other as students who are involved in STLF. STLF has a vision of instilling in people values of leadership and service that they will take with them throughout their life. It is about finding ways for us to “pay it forwardâ€? as individuals and as an organization. It is this concept of “paying it forwardâ€? rather than “paying it backâ€? that results in having an immeasurable impact that has endless potential.Â