Biology major Rebecca Watson has been a top performer on the women's varsity fencing team. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography
Scott Strobridge remembers, when he was 7 years old, visiting his grandfather. It was Christmas and snowing heavily. When he and his grandfather went out for their Meals on Wheels deliveries, they almost couldn't get the car out of their own driveway.
"Why are we doing this, grandpa?" Strobridge remembers asking.
"You'll see," his grandfather told him.
Strobridge saw mostly old people who lived in run-down apartments and houses. And he'll never forget the look of surprise and gratitude on the faces of these people when he and his grandfather trudged through the mounting snow with bags of food.
This month, the senior government major is graduating and leaving Ithaca -- and the city, in small but significant ways, is a far better place because of Strobridge's four years in town.
Since his freshman year, Strobridge has been visiting elderly shut-ins at the Reconstruction Home in downtown Ithaca.
"I love visiting with the residents," Strobridge said. "They're grateful to have someone to talk to and listen to. It takes me into the real world, and I get at least as much out of these visits as the residents do."
Strobridge helps run Bingo Night at the Reconstruction Home two nights a month. He leads a group of five to 12 Cornell students who bring juice and cookies and set up the Bingo game.
During his junior year, Strobridge, along with then-sophomore Natalie Bridgeman, began discussions with Margaret Rodger, associate director of Cornell Campus Life, about the possibility of having Cornell dining halls donate leftover food to Ithaca food distribution outlets.
Beginning in February 1997, with the help of Cornell Dining and the university's Red Runner Courier Service, Strobridge and Bridgeman, along with a group of student volunteers, began making Friday afternoon food runs. They'd pick food up at Balch and Risley halls and bring it to the Salvation Army in downtown Ithaca for its Weekend Meals Program -- which serves some 100 meals in all.
In the following months, in addition to Balch and Risley, Robert Purcell Union and Jansen's in Noyes Center began donating food, and the project began providing meals to the soup kitchen at Loaves and Fishes and supplementary food to Chartwell House, a halfway house for recovering drug addicts.
Strobridge has also worked as a tutor in local elementary schools and as a peer adviser in Cornell's Public Service Center, which helps coordinate service opportunities for Cornell students.
Strobridge has maintained a 3.6 grade point average as an undergraduate and plans to go to law school, after a year off from school. He'll work next year in the Mickey Leland Hunger Fellows Program, part of Americorps, which sends fellows to work for six months in community-based food distribution programs, such as food pantries, and to spend the other six months in Washington, D.C., working on hunger program policy.
Strobridge grew up on Long Island, in Merrick, N.Y. His father works in human resources, his mother works for Publishers Clearing House and his older brother is a stockbroker.
"My brother will make enough money for both of us," Strobridge laughs.
As he marches from the Arts Quad to Schoellkopf Field with several thousand classmates to Commencement Sunday, Strobridge will leave behind dozens of people whose lives he has touched and changed in small but crucial ways.
Many will not even remember his name, but Strobridge will remember them, as he remembers the faces of the people he visited 15 years ago -- when he was with his grandfather, bringing warmth and nourishment to those in need. He was 7 years old and outside in the mounting snow, at Christmastime.
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