The sandwich drive was organized by a
Tufts group called FOCUS (Freshmen Orientation CommUnity Service),
which sends small groups of students into the Boston area to volunteer
at soup kitchens, zoos, special needs programs, elderly homes, parks
and homeless shelters during the week before freshmen orientation.
FOCUS is one of five optional pre-orientation programs that allow
students to meet other incoming freshmen with similar interests. Other
pre-orientation programs include an interfaith program, a fitness and
development program, an international student program, and a wilderness
program.

The parent organization of FOCUS is the Leonard
Carmichael Society, the largest student-run organization at Tufts,
which consists of over 900 volunteers who participate in community
service at Tufts and in the surrounding Boston area. Now in its
thirteenth year as part of the Tufts pre-orientation, FOCUS attracted
an exciting 165 incoming freshmen, up 70 students from last year. These
students were led by 70 upper class leaders, many of whom participated
in the program their freshmen years and loved it enough to come back.

Barbara
Rubel, the director of Community Relations at Tufts, serves as the
faculty advisor to FOCUS and was very excited with the turnout and
enthusiasm with this year's group. She hopes that the program will
effectively "introduce incoming freshmen to Tufts while also getting
them involved in the surrounding community." The students involved have
worked all around the Greater Boston area, and many have even stayed in
local community centers and churches.

Julia Carlson, one of
three upper class coordinators of the program and a secretary with the
Leonard Carmichael Society, said she "fell in love with the program" as
a leader during her sophomore year and while she admits it has been
hard work as a coordinator she has "had a ball" during her time with
FOCUS. Thursday's sandwich marathon provided a good opportunity to
bring all students involved in the program together for one activity
after students had been working around the Boston area in groups of
eight to ten students.

The entire production was quite a sight
for cars passing by the Tufts campus on College Avenue as 235 students
scrambled around the Gantcher Center lawn trying to reach their
sandwich quota. Split into groups of ten or eleven per table, students
were given a few minutes to formulate a plan of attack before making
100 sandwiches per table in one hour. The teamwork-oriented task was
consistent with the program's theme of bringing students together over
a common goal or interest. All the sandwiches were shipped out at 7
o'clock the next morning to be served as lunch at the Greater Boston
Food Bank. As hoped for, the program proved to be a successful way to
familiarize incoming freshmen with one another while performing an
important public service for the surrounding community.