Every year the Secular Student Alliance gives awards to affiliate groups that have gone above and beyond in categories like Community, Activism, and Education. I’m happy to share the news that the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue, the student organization that I founded and was president of, has won Best Service Project!

The Secular Student Alliance awarded its Best Service Project Award to the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue. The group partook in a number of community service efforts, including supporting a local food bank, cleaning up trash, and raising money to send an atheist to church. For the food bank, the Society of Non-Theists collected nearly 100 pounds of food as part of the university’s fall food drive. Then, the group cleaned up roughly 20 bags of trash as part of beautifying the grounds around campus.

In addition, the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue raised $360 to send an atheist to church. Inspired by Hemant Mehta’s “selling his soul on eBay,” the club collected money to send its members to a worship service. The group provided a number of collection jars, and each was filled with money to vote for a particular denomination. The church with the most in its jar would be the place where club members would visit, and all the proceeds were donated to a local food bank. Purdue’s efforts not only led to the raising of $360 and visiting of twelve churches; they also received local media coverage. We are pleased to present our 2010 Best Service Project Award to the Purdue Non-Theists!

I’m so proud of our club and excited that my last year as president ended on such a high note. And I’m sure current members of SNT will be happy about the $300 award prize – that more than doubles our treasury, so they’ll be able to do a lot of fun events in the future!