Tomorrow will provide a golden opportunity for Eastern students to shed that awful stereotype that people of our generation are so often saddled with: Selfish laziness.

Of course, with every generation, members of the one that preceded it will cry out how young people don’t understand what true hard work is or what it means to have to earn something.

But tomorrow, we can prove them all wrong.

Every year, Panther Service Day brings students together in an effort to volunteer and perform any number of philanthropic services in order to help those in need in our own community.

This past year should have drilled into each and every student’s head just how necessary it is to have someone willing to help when life gets tough.

We all watched the news as the earthquake that rocked Haiti to its foundations rendered the nation helpless.

We watched the screen and saw the lives torn apart, countless people killed and the citizens of Haiti struggle simply to continue on.

And we watched as volunteers from all across the county and all across the globe flocked to the tiny island and did whatever they could to provide help and relief. And those volunteers proved that there is still good in the world, there are still people willing to help.

While the own difficulties that some may face in our own backyard may not be nearly as horrific, it is still important for those in need to know, and for those of us capable to show that we are all one people, one family.

The conflict between Charleston natives and Eastern students that sometimes rears its head will most likely never truly end. But, as a pair of communities, we need each other.

So many businesses rely on the patronage of Eastern students to stay afloat. And so many services are provided by Charleston and its residents that we as a university take for granted far too often.

However, tomorrow we can wake up a little early, go out and do some legitimate good for our community.

It isn’t only important to do this as a means of showing the surrounding community that we care, but as a means of proving that we may be two separate entities, but that we are actually do care about Charleston and its residents.

Too many students live every day under the sad and flawed thinking that Charleston and its residents exist only to serve Eastern and that without the school Charleston would be nothing.

This could not be further from the truth. Charleston was here before Eastern and it would most certainly carry on if the school disappeared. It would, indeed, be a much smaller, quieter and sleepy little town, but the town would still exist, to be sure.

And some students even think that they owe nothing to the town. These thoughts were heard from members of student government all the way to numerous comments on The Daily Eastern News website when the issue of the tax swap meant to provide additional funds for area schools arose.

So many students said that Charleston was wildly out of line to ask for money and help from Eastern students.

Let’s get beyond this ignorant line of thinking, Eastern.

Regardless of the perceived relationship between Charleston and Eastern, we are all people. We all live in the same town and we should all do something, if only for one day, to make our community better and help those that need it.

So, tomorrow let’s actually do it. It is only one day out of our lives and we do owe it to our fellow human beings in our mutually shared home to go out and help.

Let’s shake that terrible stereotype. Let’s do something good, if only for one day.

A rabbit feeds on some grass outside of Weller Hall on Monday. The campus wildlife has become more and more visible as spring has arrived.(Jordan Boner/The Daily Eastern News)

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