Student Groups Make a Difference
Posted on Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Several Westminster College student groups participated in Make a Difference Day at the end of October.
Sisters of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority spent a day painting pumpkins with residents at Shenango Presbyterian Senior Care and Shenango on the Green.
Students in Dr. Amy Camardese's elementary education/special education class are participating in a semester-long service learning project involving Special Olympics athletes. On Friday, Oct. 26, they joined the athletes for a Halloween Dance at Shenango Volunteer Fire Department in New Castle.
Dr. Eileen Morelli and Dr. Mandy Medvin are advisers to First Book-Westminster, a campus organization that provides new books to children from low-income homes. Volunteers read to children at Walker Neighborhood House, an after-school program in New Castle. Over 50 books were distributed to children.
Mortar Board, an honor society for seniors, raked leaves for over 30 families in New Wilmington and the surrounding community. Leaves collected from outside the borough were taken to Westminster's Field Station for composting.
A group of 18 four- and five-year-olds from Westminster's Preschool Lab and many of their parents participated in a composting project at Westminster's Field Station, under the directions of Dr. Clarence Harms. They talked about composting and how a good neighbor would re-use their garbage to feed the earth. At the Field Station, they added worms, water, leftover food, shredded paper, and leaves and stirred it up with gloved hands.
Volunteers from the Sierra Student Coalition cleaned their mile-long Adopt-a-Highway section of Interstate 80. They collected 13 heavy duty trash bags of garbage in addition to fallen road signs, sand bags, and tires.
The Westminster College Feminists volunteered at the Lawrence County Crisis Shelter in New Castle. One group planted approximately 20 donated trees, one group did interior painting, and one group cleaned the food pantry of expired items. Sue Connelly, the shelter's director of volunteers, explained that government funding would be given to the shelter as a match for the physical labor donated.
Contact Shane Killian, PACC-VISTA member in Westminster's Drinko Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, at (724) 946-6194 or e-mail killiast@westminster.edu for additional information.
More Stories
