NJROTC is a program that prepares students, not just for the military, but also provides students with the necessary social and leadership skills that are required in the real world. One of the main activities done in ROTC outside of school hours is community service. ROTC community service is a lot of cadets volunteering to help out the school or community by doing things such as picking up trash or helping with school events. According to senior Samuel Lesch, who is in his fourth year of ROTC, “Community service isn’t necessary to succeed in ROTC, participating in events and doing community service will allow you to go farther in the program then someone who doesn’t .” Additionally, he said “I don’t think community service should be mandatory, but I think that cadets should still participate in one or two community service events.” Lesch believes everyone should participate in community service events at least a few times, and that cadets who participate are more successful.

But what do non-ROTC students think about ROTC community service and their thoughts on the kinds of things they do and their performance? a few months ago there was an event where ROTC helped set up and direct people for the band competition.Freshman Sierra Dawson was there and said “I thought [they] did a good job helping setup and helping the competition run pretty good by telling people where they need to go so they didn’t go the wrong way.” So the ROTC cadets do their jobs when they help out fairly well but how often has ROTC helped out with school matters and what are some of the events that they’ve helped out with.

The ROTC cadets have helped out with the football games when football was in season. They helped out with setting up (just like the band events) and they helped direct traffic which is actually a needed job because many people choose to ignore parking directions and sometimes mess things up by parking in the wrong place. In addition to all of the football games and the band event, ROTC has also helped with Wreaths Across America, which is an event where ROTC students around Christmas time go to cemeteries and decorate the graves of deceased members of the military. Lesch stated that “(ROTC) Does all kinds of events throughout the year and help setup and run things smoothly when the school hosts events” ROTC hosts all kinds of events and when they do (according to others) they’re a major help to the school and the community.