Days of Service
Coe College students, faculty, staff, and other members of our network particpate in 5-6 Days of Service througout the academic year. The following is a description of our Days of Service:
January
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service
The third Monday in January was designated as an annual federal holiday and national day of service by Congress in 1994. This day is to bring attention to real needs affecting our local communities. The slogan is a “Day ON- Not a day Off”. Students in the past have served at various local shelters. Since 2009, Coe College has a launched an international focus on this day of service. Student, faculty, and staff united with Kids Against Hunger to pack meals for Haiti for a 2 hour meal packing session. Through out the fall semester, students fundraise to support the meal packing project. It cost .25 a meal to feed a child in Haiti. On MLK student pack around 6,000 - 8,000 meals.
http://www.mlkday.gov
http://www.kidsagainsthungercr.com/
April
Global Youth Service Day: Spring500
Global Youth Service Day is an annual event organized by Youth Service America with the Global Youth Action Network, together with a consortium of International Organizations and more than 100 National Coordinating Committees. Coe College unites with Aging Services to meet the household chore needs of individuals who are elderly in our community. 100 students, faculty, and staff commit 5 hours of service in one day of service and work at over 40 homes of elderly clients in our community.
http://gysd.org/
August
New Student Orientation Day of Service
For the past 5 years, all first year students during New Student Orienation Week volunteers their time to help out with various projects in the Cedar Rapids community. Over the years students have worked with Habitat for Humanity, BRIGHTEN, Willis Dady Emergancy Shelter, Linn County Parks and Recreation, Cedar Rapids School District, CSPS, Cedar Rapids Flood Recovery Center, and many more local agencies. This day of service alone has placed over $108,000.00 of volunteer hours into the community. In 2011, the day will be taking on a new face and structure to enhance the students' learning experience and exposure to the community. Students will be engaging in a reflection activies about their past service experience and discuss with our local non profits with the goal to inspire them to be invested in their new community.
September
September 11 Day of Service and Remembrance
A national movement launched in 2003 to establish 9/11 as a national day of kindness, service and reflection by volunteering, helping others in need, or doing something good for your community. In 2009, Coe College adopted soldiers and troops in Iraq. Student, faculty, and staff created care packages for our troops. In 2010, students, faculty, and staff worked on a "Go Blue Campaign" to bring light to the oil spill in the Golf Coast and helped clean up our local beaches.
http://911dayofservice.org/
Coe Cares: Family Weekend Service Project
Each year over 100 students and family members are invited and encouraged to give two hoursof service. Following a continental breakfast, families set out to serve Cedar Rapids. Groups have done landscaping at newly built Habitat for Humanity homes and planting trees at the campground at Squaw Creek Park on National Public Lands Day, in conjunction with Trees Forever.
October
Make A Difference Day
Make A Difference Day, the largest national day of helping others, is sponsored annually by USA WEEKEND Magazine and its 700 carrier newspapers. Make A Difference Day takes place on the 4th Saturday in October each year. This is a national day of helping others -- a celebration of neighbors helping neighbors. Students on this day have worked with Kaboom to build a playground in the flood zone, traveled to inner city Chicago to do Homelessness and Hunger outreach, or have coordinated other outreach experiences.
http://www.handsonnetwork.org/MakeADifferenceDay
