Sonia Mixter Guzman, left, and Megan York Parker at Ronald McDonald House in Camden

f17_McDonaldHouse-123_r1_inline.jpg

Rutgers University–Camden alumnae Sonia Mixter Guzman, left, and Megan York Parker at Ronald McDonald House in Camden. Guzman is the educational outreach manager at Ronald McDonald House; Parker is president of the Honors College Alumni Association at Camden.

Photography: 
John O'Boyle

For Megan York Parker CCAS’03, life as a Rutgers student was as much about giving back as it was about academic excellence—and she believes the same was true for many of her classmates. “Service was part of who we were then, and it’s a part of who we are today,” says Parker, president of the Honors College Alumni Association at Camden.

Now a marketing and public relations professional, Parker says service work wasn’t required when she was an honors college student. But she and her peers volunteered for various organizations, anyway. After graduating, “everyone was so used to doing service that when our group first came together, we said, ‘What projects are we going to do?’ It just seemed natural.”

The alumni group has developed bonds with two charitable organizations in Camden—the Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey and Cathedral Kitchen, the city’s largest emergency food provider. In December, the group gathered at the Rutgers–Camden Alumni House and prepared nearly 600 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Cathedral Kitchen. They also collected dozens of toys to be given to  children at the Ronald McDonald House. Other projects have included assembling hygiene kits, with such necessities as socks and toothbrushes, for Cathedral Kitchen to distribute.

Sonia Mixter Guzman CCAS’06, the  educational outreach manager at Ronald McDonald House, says the group’s efforts are already improving the lives of kids and families. Association members, she says, are “complete strangers, but they’re willing to say, ‘I’m here for you.’ We’re grateful.”