Weekly Volunteer Commitments:
Students had the opportunity to participate in on-going volunteerism at the following sites. At the beginning of the year I selsected these locations so that they would include different types of volunteer projects. I think the more diversity you can provide for students when it comes to service initiatives, they greater variety of students you get interested in volunteering and the more causes your Hillel can choose to support through your students. I found the best way to get students to commit to regular volunteering was to not do each project weekly, but rather select 4-5 dates of each activity and make a calendar that includes all of the many different options for that quarter. Students were able to pick the dates that worked in their busy schedules. I sent out weekly email reminders to all students who signed up to voluteer anywhere that week and coordinated rides. The combination of these two things made it easy for students to show up at Hillel and head off to their voluteer locations.
Tuesday: Shop and prepare dinner for residents at the Unverferth House, a temporary housing place for families of ill patients at the OSU Medical Center
Thursday: Play bingo with the elderly residents at the Wexner Heritage Village
Friday: Serve lunch to women, families, and men at Faith Mission Shelter and Soup Kitchen
(35 students participated throughout year)
Schmooze about Service: STARFISH Kick-Off Meeting: Open House for students interested in volunteering. Similar meeting held the first week of each quarter. (15-20 students participated) At meetings, small service projects were done: making beaded bracelets for battered women, creating Thanksgiving gifts for children in the hospital, and decorating cookies for OSU firemen.
DO THE DEED: A quarterly day of service where 100s of students are engaged in a large-scale service project:
Autumn Quarter: Columbus Parks and Recreation "The Creeks": was cancelled due to bad weather. I would suggest rescheduling this event. The contact at the Parks and Recreation Center is Chris Wittkop. You might want to set up a meeting with him early on in the year so he can share with you all of the possible projects in the Columbus Parks.
Winter Quarter: Jr/Sr Prom at the Wexner Jewish Heritage House, an intergenerational evening with the elderly residents. There were decorations, dancing, dessert, and caricatures. (25 students participated) I created a binder (which can be found above my desk in the filing cabinet) that contains details on budgeting, soliciting donations, detials of planning, contacts at the Wexner Heritage House, student recruiment info as well as a list of students that participated last year, and contact info for the dj, caricaturist, and florist we used (should you ever need any of these people for a program :)
Spring Quarter: Healthy Start Carnival at Medary Elementary School. Students put on an afternoon of activities for 3rd-5th graders about making healthy life choices. There were relay races, healthy snacks, service projects, zany science experiments, and an inflatable planetarium. (60 students participated)
Cosponsored by Starfish, Kappa Phi Kappa education honor society, Wonder of Our World future science educators, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Alpha Phi, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Zeta Beta Tau, Sigma Phi Epsilon, OSU Football players
There is also a binder for this program with all of the essential info. Medary Elementary has requested that we do this program again next year with their students. The conact there is Sherry Lyons (should you need more info...its all in the binder)
PB and Jam: Annual event where over 4,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were made by OSU students and distributed to local area food banks. Over 36 student organizations co-sponsored the event and all supplies to make the sandwiches were donated. The event coincided with National Hunger and Homelessness Week. Over 25 food programs benefited from the sandwiches (3000 students participated across campus)
Once again, there is a binder in my office for this one too! :)
We had two students co-chair the project. There are already a handful of students who have expressed interect. This is the one project that I was expected if not required to do with my job description. There is a lot of helpful material on how to plan this HUGE program, including many leftover donations downstairs in the programmiong storage room.
What do you like in your pot?:
A table was set up on the main campus lawn with terra cotta pots and paint. As students stopped by on their way to class, they painted a pot. The following day they came to the Hillel building to pot plant and bring it over to the Jewish old age home. The students stayed to play bingo with the elderly residents. (40 students participated)
World of Children: Members of STARFISH were asked to help with the Hannah Neil World of Children Forum for local elementary school children. Check with Susannah to see if Hillel is invited again this next year to be the volunteers and guides for the day.
(10 STARFISH student leader participants)
Girl Scouts and Pitching Tents: STARFISH members were asked to help pitch tents prior to the young Girl Scouts starting camp. Students arrived in the early morning, ate lunch as a group, and stayed until the afternoon. (8 students participated)
Stacey (one of your interns) will be especially helpful with this day, should you chose to do it again, she came this year.
Pillow Project: STARFISH students met in Stradley Hall to color pillow cases with fabric markers. The pillowcases were then donated to the local Children's hospital as gifts to the children when they go home. (21 students participated)
BINGO Night with Senior Citizens: Students spent an intense evening playing BINGO at the Wexner Heritage Village retirement community. (8 students participated)
Suggestions and Goals
Start early in the year with a kickoff meeting for Starfish and community service. The students that came to the initial meeting back in September were the most active and volunteered throughout the year. Keep it fun and varried. Community memember might call thing Starfish is a good way to get volunteers for just about any project. Be selective in which projects you pursue. Students will get worn out (even if they love volunteering!) quickly if you over program.
I see strong leadership developing in this group. I might aim to get a student leadership structure for the group (besides the interns) who plan meetings and projects.
The two Tezdek Interns for next year are the best of the best! They will help you transition into the fellowship.
Best of Luck!
