Members of the Wittenberg community plan to make a positive impact in the Springfield community when they leave campus to participate in Celebrate Service 2006, which will be held from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, April 22.
Wittenberg Director of Community Service Kristen Collier expects 85 to 100 volunteers to sign up for the fifth annual event, this year titled “Piecing It All Together.” According to Collier, this year’s program also celebrates the first year the university volunteers will perform service for the City of Springfield.
Two city locations have been selected for cleanup — an abandoned firehouse that the city hopes to sell and a vacant city lot that has been used as a dumping site.
Nine student coordinators organized this year’s event — Kira Hileman, class of 2006 of North Olmsted, Ohio, Nikki Spirgen, class of 2006 of Lakewood, Ohio, Peri Cohen, class of 2008 of Reisterstown, Md., Rob Loeffler, class of 2008 of Springfield, Ohio, Ashley Buroff, class of 2006 of Hilliard, Ohio, Ashley Petersen, class of 2007 of Loveland, Ohio, Melissa Niese, class of 2007 of Put-In-Bay, Ohio, Erin Robinson, class of 2007 of Lexington, Ky., and Annie Nichols, class of 2007 of Carney’s Point, N.J.
Hileman, a four-year community service scholar, worked behind the scenes on last year’s event and led this year’s efforts.
“The entire event is student-planned,” Hileman said. “Students make the connections, discover the needs, plan each project, organize the volunteers, fund and buy supplies and plan the celebration party that will follow the day’s service.”
Tasks and sites with Community Service partners include playground cleanup at the Children’s Rescue Center – Ark South After School Program, landscape projects at Oesterlen Services for Youth, farm beautification and a hen-house raising at On the Rise After School Program and cleaning, organizing and landscaping projects with the Interfaith Hospitality Network.
Another new feature for this year is online registration. For those who choose more traditional methods, registration will also begin at 12:30 p.m. on the day of the event on Alumni Way. That will be followed by an orientation program.
Transportation, which includes a city school bus, will be provided to take volunteers to and from the work sites following orientation. Upon return to campus at 4 p.m., a celebration with food, music and raffle prizes will be held for all the participants.
A jigsaw puzzle, designed to emphasis that two pieces, Wittenberg and Springfield, make up the whole, is printed on the T-shirt that each volunteer will receive.
“We’re really excited about making the Springfield connection,” Hileman said. “Neither Springfield nor Wittenberg would operate the same without the other, and this gives us an opportunity to put the two pieces together in a positive manner.”
