Kenneth Cheung's Alpha Phi Omega Universe

Ice Cream Social Report

By Kenneth Cheung
            On September 2, I participated in the Ice Cream Social at San Jose State University. This event was part of the Student Life and Leadership campaign to get students involved on campus. My twin, Stephanie Valencia, was the chairperson for this event. She called me earlier and told me to show up at the Leadership office next to the Market Café before 11am. I showed up before 10:50 and the volunteers were already at the art quad outside the entrance to the Student Union. Marc Tellez came before me and he was filling balloons in the student bookstore. I held the balloons for him as we went outside and tied them to the tent and advertising signs. We had more blue and gold balloons than necessary. This made it easy for students to locate the ice cream. When we returned, we took a break for lunch. I learned about Anna’s adventures in crabbing, which I found quite fascinating.
            After walking for refreshments, I finally saw Stephanie at the tent. It was 12:00 and the event officially began. Celebrities (e.g. faculty) were the main scoopers. William Thater and Marc became ice cream truckers and delivered the frozen dairy product fresh from the freezer. Shawn Fernandez, Stephanie, and I advertised on the streets screaming “Free ice cream!” and handing out Student Life and Leadership magazines to students who walked by. I looked at this magazine and saw that it endorsed a coalition of fraternities and sororities. Our fraternity was not a member of the coalition, since these fraternities were mainly social-oriented and because of the fact that Alpha Phi Omega cannot join other organizations.  Ironically, I felt like I was rushing for other fraternities while Alpha Phi Omega’s booth was located next to the ice cream tent. I wore my black rush shirt, so I absorbed a lot of heat during the hot afternoon. I took two warm water breaks (because there was no cold water, for people were supposed to use the warm water to clean the scooping spoons).
            At the end, after 2:30pm, the people of SJSU consumed 30 tubs of ice cream, which equals 150 gallons. I myself had two generous servings of chocolate. Since I have been standing for two hours and the weather was relentless, I felt exhausted when it was over. Afterwards, I went to the bookstore to return something and one of the cashiers recognized me and asked if there was still ice cream. I told her that it was unfortunately too late. This I realize is one of the benefits of volunteer work: people recognize you even though you may not recognize them, and it gives you a sense of assurance that you performed the work well.

09.23.2004