Some people spend years thinking how they might contribute to the community and never actually get up the nerve to sign up for anything.Then there’s the ladies of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.The group has set its sights on completing 100 community service projects before June, in honour of its 100th anniversary.So far, members have participated in tag days for organisations like Raleigh Bermuda, given out running numbers at the recent Telford Mile race and donated grocery vouchers and cash to the New Church of God to help with an upcoming Haiti missions trip.At last tally, they were about a quarter of the way to their goal.Said Roxanne Christopher, president of the Bermuda chapter: “Community service is at the core of our organisation so in order to become a member you have to have a strong active community service background.“So our members already have a strong affinity, bond and personal commitment to improving the lives of those in the community.“Now with the ‘100 for 100’ we are just documenting it more meticulously, but it’s not pushing us to do more than we ordinarily do.”Ms Christopher said Delta’s members were all leaders in their respective sectors — be it education, medicine or business. The biggest challenge in meeting the goal is balancing their many commitments, while still keeping community service a priority, she said.Lead organiser for the volunteer event, Donna Edwards, came up with the idea to host the ‘100 for 100’ during a meeting last September. Since then members have been volunteering individually or as a group. Their efforts have led to their involvement with rest homes and helping the Salvation Army feed the homeless.The Deltas host an annual reading festival. They also regularly meet with women in the Co-Educational Facility to offer workshops on resume writing and provide them with resources and tools for their lives when they exit the prison.Another mentoring programme they offer, called Delta Gems, is open to young girls aged 14 to 18. Monique Caesar, the chapter’s first vice president, said: “What we do is try to help them or get them towards their future goals, whatever that may be, and give them life skills as well as support them.“[One of the girls] wants to be a lawyer so we linked her up with a mentor who is in that field.”The sorority sisters are planning to donate books to help replenish the library at Victor Scott Primary School. They are also gearing up to launch a new national programme to support the Island’s young men, called Embodi.The programme will assist young boys with academics and teach them etiquette so that they are growing up to be “great productive adults and men”.Ms Christopher said: “We feel women have a role to play in developing in the character of our young men, so our Embodi programme will be addressing some of those challenges.”The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was founded by 22 college women from Howard University on January 13, 1913. The women wanted to use their collective strength to promote academic excellence and provide help to people in need.Their first public community service act took place that March, when the founding members took part in the Women's Suffrage March in Washington DC.Locally the sorority has close to 80 members, ranging in age from 20 to 90 years of age. Prominent members include retired politician Louise Jackson and educators Merle Brock Swan Williams and the late Dame Marjorie Bean.Ms Christopher said she was inspired to join the sorority after being encouraged by Ms Brock Swan Williams; she pledged in 1989.“I was first enticed through her and she has had a major impact in my life in many capacities and when I went to college I saw another aspect of the organisation.“Service was always a part of my mother’s and my life, it was almost a non-negotiable. We always had to give back. No matter what we had or didn’t have it made sense.“The sorority also exposed me to the understanding of the impact you could make with the numbers of women when you see what Delta has done globally and across the United States and I have a strong attachment to the organisation.”Since joining the Deltas, Ms Edwards said she has been able to meet different people from around the world with a common bond of sisterhood.When some US sorority sisters from Black Girls Run visited the Island for Bermuda Race weekend, Ms Edwards said one was crushed when there weren’t enough medals to hand out to participants.The local chapter found out the woman’s name and contact details and found an extra medal to drop off at her hotel. She said: “She just bawled when she saw it and we went through all that just because she was a sorority sister.”Over the next few months the women will be busily trying to reach their community service goal. They will have a float in the Bermuda Day Parade on May 24 and will also host an Olympic-style torch in Bermuda from May 24 to June 3.The torch is expected to be sent to 22 member chapters; the only two international ones chosen were Bermuda and Japan.The ladies said it was “a huge honour” to host the torch and also a testament to how active the local organisation has been in regards to community service.Useful website: www.deltasigmatheta.org/