Day of Service Introduces New Students to Off-Campus Community

August 28, 2007 –On Saturday, September 1, more than 300 new Oberlin students will congregate on the plaza of Finney Chapel and board a platoon of yellow buses that will take them throughout the area for the College’s annual Day of Service (DOS). Now in its 11th year, the event enlists students in a wide variety of volunteer projects, introducing them to Oberlin’s 174-year tradition of integrating education with community outreach.

“It’s rare to find a place where so many students will so readily volunteer their time to serve the community,” says Beth Blissman, director of the College’s Bonner Center for Service and Learning (BCSL), which coordinates the program. “Last year it rained lightly all day, yet we still had 322 new students serve at 20 different nonprofit sites in Lorain County. Oberlin has a truly unique and inspiring tradition in the Day of Service.”  

Many of the projects involve helping nonprofits gear up for the start of the school year—performing landscaping and maintenance tasks, for example. Others focus on interaction with residents of local nursing homes and retirement centers.

There are also a number of projects that are new this year.  For example, several first-year students will work with Main Street Oberlin, Inc., downtown’s beautification, promotion, and economic development group, to carry out an economic development survey of downtown businesses. “We are very excited and thankful to have volunteers from the Bonner Center helping to improve downtown Oberlin,” says Christina Nichols, director of Main Street Oberlin. “We see it as a win-win situation. The students are given a unique, firsthand experience with downtown businesses, and the information they collect will benefit downtown. This is yet another great way to continue to expand outreach opportunities between the College and the town.”

Another group will go to Martin Luther King Park in Oberlin, where they will help the Rotary Club clean up Plum Creek and improve landscaping in the park. A third group will go to Harrison Cultural Community Center in Lorain to carry out improvements, such as painting and organizing, as well as some landscaping work. Members of the Harrison Center’s video program also will film them for a documentary.

“The Day of Service has been a transformational experience for me in many ways,” says DOS Coordinator Jennifer Koerner. “The students’ enthusiasm is inspirational, as is the dedication of the many community organizations involved. DOS not only gives students the opportunity to build their awareness and connect with the community, it also provides invaluable services and resources to Oberlin and Lorain County citizens.”

Bonner Scholar Senior Intern Charlotte Collins has been a Day of Service site leader for the past three years. She is amazed by how much the students accomplish, as well as by their energy and dedication. “As a first-year it is very easy to become overwhelmed and think of yourself only as a member of the college, but participation in the DOS enables new students to make strong connections to organizations and community partners and realize how important they are to the greater Oberlin community,” Collins says.

 “They also begin to see that community service is an act of pure kindness in which one receives as much as one gives,” Collins points out. “That knowledge will inform their future decisions as Oberlin College students. This event ignites students’ passion for community service early in their college career.”

2007 Day of Service Projects

• Harvest organically grown food and remove weeds and invasive plants at George Jones Farm/ New Agrarian Center.
• Interact with residents at Kendal at Oberlin.
• Carry out landscaping duties and paint touch-ups at Oberlin City Schools (Eastwood, Langston, and Oberlin High School).
• Perform landscaping at Oberlin Early Childhood Center.
• Clean classrooms, perform landscape maintenance at the Oberlin Boys and Girls Club.
• Socialize with residents at Oberlin’s Murray Ridge Group Home.
• Undertake brush and invasive clearing/painting at Common Ground, the Cindy Nord Center for Renewal on Baird Road.
• Organize, paint, and carry out landscape improvements at Lorain’s Harrison Cultural Community Center.
• Prepare landscaping of new Lorain County Metro Park at Lakeview, Lorain.
• Carry out a natural resource project at Lorain County Metro Park, Carlisle Reservation.
• Painting, staining, and other maintenance at the social service agency El Centro de Servicios Sociales in Lorain.
• Build awareness of the new YWCA Women’s Center in Lorain through dissemination of postcards throughout the local area, and help to organize and clean the new center.
• Clear brush from existing and new trails in Huron County with Firelands Rails to Trails.
• Paint the computer room at The Bridge, Oberlin Public Library’s Community Technology Center.
• Carry out cleaning and maintenance at the Weltzheimer Johnson House in Oberlin.
• Participate in vegetable oil collection and processing as well as art project at Full Circle Fuels in Oberlin.
• Help Friends of the Oberlin Underground Railroad prepare for their Walk to Wellington on September 15.
• Organize and clean the youth center at Mt. Zion Church, Oberlin.
• Maintain landscape and paint at the Oberlin Heritage Center.
• Cleaning and painting computer room at the Lorain County Urban League, in Elyria.
• Paint and make landscape improvements at the Firelands Division of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy in Oberlin.
• Landscape, clean, and remove invasive plants at Martin Luther King Park, Oberlin, in conjunction with The Rotary Club.
• Carry out a downtown business economic development survey for Main St., Oberlin, Inc.
• Socialize with residents of Welcome Nursing Home, Oberlin.
• Help Save Our Children in Elyria clean and organize the center.

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Media Contact:

Betty Gabrielli
Staff Writer
Oberlin College
440-775-5423