On Saturday, April 12, students visited three organizations in the Dayton area and volunteered to do community service. Student Involvement and Leadership hopes to expand volunteer efforts in the future so that events like this can continue.
Why host Community Service Saturday?
Community Service Saturday was hosted by Student Involvement and Leadership, but was mainly led by Gina Keucher, the Associate Director of SIL. WSU has been a community service driven university for some time now.
“We were recognized as a Carneigie classification university for community engagement, and we’re going to reapply for that so that we can continue that recognition. So you just have to show that you are doing work for the organizations in your community,” Keucher said.
She works closely with Omicron Delta Kappa, a student leadership honorary. This organization works to promote students to be the best that they can be in multiple categories.
“[Omicron Delta Kappa] recognizes exemplary student involvement and achievement in athletics; campus or community service; journalism, speech, and the mass media; social and religious activities and campus government, and creative and performing arts,” its website reads.
You must be in the top 35% of your academic class to be a part of the organization, and you must also receive a nomination from peers or faculty. The WSU ODK was founded in 2004 and continues to thrive to this day.
ODK is hoping to collaborate more closely with SIL to help host community service events in the future.
“Part of their work is service, right? It’s service to the community, and so they’ve discussed that they might want to host things as well,” Keucher said.
Keucher is also hoping to host this event once a semester.
Who were the organizations affected?
There were originally almost a dozen partners. However, due to the turnout being lower than expected, some partners had to be dropped. Ultimately, three organizations were benefitted.
The turnout was good, but not the best that it could have been. 30 students volunteered to participate– compared to the 100 student registration limit, this may seem low. However, students were still able to get out there and give back to their community, which was the most important part.
Keucher worked with Bing Bingham, an Alumni Relationship Specialist for WSU who also helps put on the We Serve U event each year.
“Transforming the communities we serve is an integral part of [WSU]'s mission. The cornerstone of the We Serve U program encourages [WSU] staff to provide their time and skills to engage in significant community service opportunities. Giving time, talent and service betters the lives of our staff, provides a sense of unity within our university and helps build relationships with those around us,” the We Serve U page reads.
This event works closely with a number of partners, or organizations in the Dayton area, for faculty to offer their time and effort to. Keucher was provided the list of organizations We Serve U usually helps, and was able to collaborate with them to be partners for Community Service Saturday.
With the number of volunteers available, students were able to work with the Centerville-Washington Park District, the Dayton Foodbank and Habitat for Humanity.
Volunteers dressed up as mascots, removed invasive plants like garlic mustard, planted vegetables for the foodbank and helped build walls for houses.
Despite the number of attendees, the volunteers successfully completed a large amount of work for these partners. The day ended with a talk on campus from Keucher about the impact of community service.
“That’s one of the things we did when we came back, is kind of talk about the impact,” Keucher said. “[For example], four volunteers did three to four hours of service; that’s half a week from the people that work there. And so the difference that they made in that one day, they were absolutely extending what that group could do.”
WSU’s attempts to expand volunteer work
Keucher already has plenty of ideas in mind to encourage students to participate in community service.
“One of the really cool things we’re going to do this year for First Weekend is we are going to have the opportunity for all of our first-year students, and any other students that want to do it, to participate in a Habitat for Humanity panel build,” Keucher said.
This event will take place on Aug. 20, the day before the fall semester starts. Keucher hopes that as many first-year students as possible participate.
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that serves to build homes and collaborate with individuals and families who are in need of housing. They also offer Habitat ReStores, which are stores that sell gently-used furniture at a fraction of the resale price.
“Habitat’s vision is of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. Habitat works toward this vision by building and improving homes in partnership with individuals and families in need of a decent and affordable place to live,” HFH’s website reads.
Additionally, Keucher is working closely with Erin Compaleo, the Assistant Director of Outdoor Recreation, to try and offer an alternative Fall Break in which students offer their time to national parks and similar areas.
“[We want to have] an alternate Fall Break where [students] go to a site where they can do hiking and camping, but they’re also doing service while they’re there. And we’re trying to tie that to… national park services are having people laid off, and they need more help clearing paths and trails,” Keucher said.
Another potential area for this proposed break alternative is North Carolina, where a recent hurricane went through.
It is currently unknown if this trip will be possible, as Keucher and Compaleo are in the process of applying for a grant to make the trip a reality. However, Keucher is confident and positive that it should be able to happen this year.
SIL and WSU are working hard to continue promoting volunteer work for the Dayton community. There are plenty of organizations that need volunteers, which can be found here, though students can also wait for an event hosted by Keucher and other WSU members to happen in the future.
