March 2002

Center for Community Service emphasizes benefits for students and community

From a bright new office in Reid Campus Center, the Whitman Center for Community Service geared up for spring volunteer opportunities following two successful holiday service projects.

Since taking on her position in 2001, coordinator Rebecca Sickels has emphasized, first of all, how critical Whitman volunteers are to the Walla Walla community, and secondly, the personal rewards of volunteering. “There’s nothing better than helping someone else out,” she says.

The Center for Community Service regularly puts hundreds of Whitman students, faculty, and staff in touch with Walla Walla residents needing help, and it coordinates several major projects annually.

The Whitman Mentors program, for example, matches more than 100 students with local children. The mentors make weekly visits to schools to act as tutors and friends. Another thriving program is the annual October Make-A-Difference Day, the center’s single largest service day. This year, the program was more successful than ever, with many Whitman volunteers involved and more than two dozen organizations assisted.

The need for volunteers as well as other aid to families soars during the holiday season, however, and in December, the center led two major projects. Many offices and student groups across campus came together to help local families through Walla Walla’s Adopt-A-Family program. Whitman alone sponsored 44 families by donating money and gifts and, in some cases, by helping families shop for needed items.

The Whitman Alternative Gifts program is a substitute for traditional holiday gift giving. Individuals purchase shares to assist recognized relief organizations around the world. For example, students may buy $5 worth of job training for a woman in Zimbabwe or help support families with HIV-infected children in Romania. This year, the Whitman community gave more than $2,000 to this program. “It’s affordable for students, and they’re really making a difference in the world rather than buying a stocking stuffer,” Sickels says.

Upcoming projects include Alternative Spring Break, a week-long service project on Whidbey Island, Washington. More than 50 students donate their spring break to help clear nature trails and lead environmental education workshops in local schools. Students also will work on an English As a Second Language tutor-training program and stage a Mardi Gras dance to benefit Blue Mountain Heart to Heart, a local HIV/AIDS organization.

Sickels herself volunteers weekly at Green Park Elementary School through the Whitman Mentors program. She praises the program as an opportunity to experience firsthand the joys of volunteering. “Often I’ve had a very stressful day in the office, and people are pulling me in five different directions. When I arrive [at Green Park], I sit down with my student at the little tiny lunch table, eat a hot dog, and listen to her talk about her day. All the stress melts away, and I just feel engaged with Taylor. When I leave, I breathe deep and realize, ‘Hey, it’s never that bad.’ I think that students have also responded that way. The personal benefit is just one of the reasons they keep going back.”

— Mo Brady, ’03