By Ian Browning
Five hundred students were deployed to the university’s neighboring communities Saturday. Some were supplied with rakes, gloves and garbage bags while others went empty-handed, simply armed with smiles.
They spread out across the city – hitting Fenway, Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, Roxbury and Allston-Brighton – to lend a helping hand during a Day of Service, which happens twice a year.
The Center of Community Service coordinates NU Day of Service in October along with one in January to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The service days draw volunteers from various student organizations and independent students. Rachel Esteban got involved because she was notified through a scholarship she received. She spent her day helping Cradles and Crayons, a Quincy-based national organization that works against child poverty and homelessness, where volunteers sort books, packed clothing and cleaned toy donation.
“I’ve been volunteering since I was 12 and working in a nursing home since I was 15,” said the freshman English major. “This seemed like a good way to get involved.”
For some of the students who participated, the volunteer activity has become a weekly ritual. Forty-five students have been helping weekly since the beginning of October with the Husky Volunteer Team (HVT), an initiative recently unveiled by the center.
HVT is the brainchild of senior human services major Peter Sauro, a former co-op at the center who now works there full-time. He said he felt that there was a lack of opportunities for students to give back to the community on a convenient, consistent basis.
“The center has a lot of great service programs and opportunities like Alternative Spring Break, disaster relief, HIV/AIDS work and the Day of Service,” Sauro said. “However, there was still a desire for students to get more involved with the local community on a more frequent basis.”
The students will help in such ways as preparing meals in food pantries and mentoring at high schools. Some of the community partners HVT will work with are Women’s Lunch Place, Community Servings, the Greater Boston Food Bank, Pine Street Inn, St. Stephen After School Program, Hearth, an elderly housing agency, Boston Partners in Education, the YMCA, City on a Hill Charter School and Boston Rescue Mission.
This summer, Sauro constructed the program’s foundation, contacting organizations in Northeastern’s neighboring communities. Many of the organizations have already expressed appreciation for the volunteers.
Gale Druga, the volunteer coordinator at Hearth said, “Our volunteers are wonderful because they do things we can’t get done primarily for money reasons – to do that kind of landscaping and washing would be expensive for a non-profit. When student volunteers come to Hearth and interact with residents, it is the joy of their day. Students make a huge difference.”
The HVT met for the first time near the end of September and began working in the first week of October. Jonathan Wong, a junior finance and accounting major, had never been involved with volunteering at Northeastern before, but he wanted to meet other students and help people at the same time.
“The HVT provided a great program where I could be a resource to students who needed extra academic help,” Wong said. He works with the City on a Hill Charter School on Saturday mornings, “a sacrifice” he said is worthwhile.
“I think the adjustment will take time getting used to initially, but when you are involved with an event or activity that benefits other individuals, most of the time you don’t mind going that extra mile,” he said.
Local high schools that receive help from Northeastern students appreciate the additional volunteerism.
“I can’t even begin to tell the impact they’ve had,” said Naia Wilson, the headmaster at New Mission High School. “Our teachers and students are able to think bigger because we have access to support.”
Volunteers have helped with many tasks ranging from cleaning out cluttered storage spaces and renovating them to helping students apply for colleges and scholarships with a program called the College Access Project.
Wilson said the Husky Volunteer Team “is crucial for us.”
Those interested in getting involved with either the HVT or any of the other programs offered at the Community Service Center can e-mail [email protected], or visiting the Center, located in room 172 in the Curry Student Center.
