Photo by: Ryan Lumpkin
Despite the dreary weather, nearly 100 students turned out for a day of service on Saturday at over 10 non-profit organizations throughout the Denver metro area for DU’s first annual Volunteer Day, coordinated by members of DU Volunteers, PEAK and Be the Change, three volunteer groups on campus.
Participants completed over 400 hours of community service after registering online or signing up on Driscoll Bridge.
“I decided at the beginning of the year that there was an absence of an event like this on our campus,” said Jared Hennen, president of DU Volunteers. “It is my duty to come up with interesting, needed and fun ways to volunteer and get involved with the community.”
Students met at 8:30 the morning of the event for a free breakfast provided by Bruegger’s and to snag free volunteer t-shirts to don for the day. From 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., students volunteered at at their designated volunteer locations.
The non-profits were chosen due to existing relationships with DU volunteers. Sites included A Precious Child, African Community Center, Aurora Arts Festival, Broomfield Parks and Recreation, Denver CASA, Heritage Club, Denver Scholarship Foundation, Rocky Mountain Feline Rescue and KIPP Charter Schools.
Students were unable to choose the exact organizations they volunteered with but instead rated the type of non-profit they’d prefer to contribute.
Next year, however, organizers intend to give students their selection of sites.
From 2-2:30 p.m., volunteers returned to campus for a free lunch provided by Subway and received free tickets to the DUPB MusicFest concert series.
The planning and execution of the volunteer day was primarily student-led by 15 undergraduates and assistance was provided by Genevieve Sullivan, a graduate assistant in Student Life.
Initially, DU Volunteers began contacting nonprofits around Denver to better gauge involvement and timing.
Once enough commitments were made, the three volunteer organizations on campus opted to advertise and recruit the necessary number of volunteers with t-shirts, a table stationed on Driscoll Bridge and incentives.
Currently, there is no substantial difference between the three volunteer groups; all serve to provide service opportunities, Hennen said.
However, next academic year, the structure of the groups will be modified, with BTC and PEAK continuing monthly volunteer events, while DU Volunteers will organize “days of service,” for holidays and memorials, such as September 11.
“That way the groups can start to have different responsibilities, stronger identities and more structure,” Hennen said.
DU’s first Volunteer Day was chosen to fall on a weekend in May when few other school activities were scheduled and the weather would presumably cooperate.
Regardless of the rain, Hennen said the volunteers were “just awesome.”
