Hofstra University’s Office of Commuting Student Services and Community Outreach organized the annual fall Shake-A-Rake event at Hofstra USA on Saturday, Nov. 15. The event is meant to prepare homes for the winter and build strong bonds between the Hofstra community and their surrounding communities. 

The event was divided between two sections with one going from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and the other from noon to 2 p.m. Each session filled the room with more than 200 people from more than 30 different Hofstra clubs including sports teams and several sororities and fraternities. 

A few of the student-run organizations that attended included the Hofstra Pride Pack – a student group dedicated to all Hofstra Pride athletics – sorority Phi Sigma Sigma and the Hofstra Student Nurses Association. 

Together, the students raked leaves for more than 55 different properties across Hempstead and Uniondale communities. 

Reyaz Ally, a senior sports management major and event volunteer, explained how the Hofstra Shake-A-Rake is a good opportunity for students to earn volunteer credits alongside their peers.

“Fraternities and sororities and athletic teams need service hours, for community service, but they also need to volunteer as well,” Ally said, supporting the idea of students volunteering at least once during their academic careers.

Lead organizer of the event, Yahaira Rivera Gamez, said that although many of the properties being raked may be large, she likes to send the clubs with the most students to the larger properties. And if they need any help raking the leaves they can reach out to her so she can call others to help out. 

At the John J. Byrne Community Center in Uniondale, many student volunteers gathered from the Hofstra Pride Pack to help rake leaves and clean the property. 

One student, Alexa Zarkauskas, a freshman journalism major, said that she enjoys volunteering to help out the Hofstra community as well as some of the surrounding neighborhoods. “The yard had to have had, like, a foot of leaves on it, and now it is essentially leaf free, and it looks 10 times better,” Zarkauskas said, who highlighted why having neat, clean and welcoming spaces is important for the community. 

Regine Cayemitte, treasurer and board member for the John J. Byrne Community Center and the owner of the La Petite Kinder, a group family day care in the same community, said that the community center is the heart of the community because it provides support for families and people around the area. 

Cayemitte explained that she enjoys seeing Hofstra students help clean the yard at the community center.

“It’s a great thing,” Cayemitte said. “Because not only [are they] helping, which brings comfort in the community …they are learning to work together and, at the same time, helping us clean the place.”

Cayemitte added that the students are helping save the community center’s funds as they would have had to pay another group to rake the leaves if not for the Hofstra students. 

David Greaves, president of the John J. Byrne Community Center said that he and his organization have always been very accommodating and embracing of the students coming and helping clean their property each year.

To learn more about the Hofstra Shake-A-Rake event, reach out to the Hofstra Commuters Instagram page or search Hofstra Commuting Student Services and Community Outreach online for specific phone numbers and an email to contact.

Correction: The spelling of Alexa Zarkouskas’ name has been corrected from “Zarkaukas” to “Zarkouskas.”