Saturday of Service provides opportunities to volunteer
The University of Idaho’s Saturday of Service provides an opportunity for students to volunteer in the Moscow community and get acquainted with local organizations that partake in service projects.
This year’s Saturday of Service will held Saturday, April 11. The event is hosted by the ASUI Center for Volunteerism and Social Action.
Volunteers at Saturday of Service will participate from 9 a.m. to noon. Volunteers check in at 9 a.m. in the Memorial Gymnasium and T-shirts and breakfast will be provided for the first 300 volunteers to arrive.
Anna Dolezal is a student outreach coordinator at the center and is in charge of outreach with community partners and promotion on campus. Dolezal said Saturday of Service is in its 15th year, having started in 2001.
Dolezal said the event originally stemmed from UI students wanting to do something philanthropic for Earth Day. However, the event was not and is currently not limited to Earth Day related activities.
At Saturday of Service, volunteers are each assigned a service project with a community partner. Students can sign up individually, or as part of a group for one volunteer site.
Dolezal said participants do not choose what site they volunteer at. Instead, the organizers decide which people or groups go to respective sites.
“That’s just due to numbers as so many organizations can only take so many people,” Dolezal said. “So if everyone signs up and wants to go to the Humane Society and the Humane Society can take 15 people, then it becomes really difficult for us to make everyone happy.”
Dolezal said Saturday of Service could attract students to new volunteer interests, or it could be the perfect opportunity to make new friends.
“Students should really just be ready to jump in and do whatever, wherever they’re placed,” Dolezal said. “There’s a lot of different types of service. It might be something you’ve never done before, that you’re not particularly interested in, but I guarantee no matter what, you will definitely get something valuable out of giving back and you’ll be able to meet hopefully some new people.”
Students can sign up as regular volunteers or as site leaders. Site leaders have additional responsibilities.
[box style=”rounded” border=”full”]The deadline for applications to be a site leader is March 30 and the deadline for applications to be a volunteer is April 3. Applications can be found at uidaho.edu/volunteer.[/box]
“Site leaders are kind of our liaison between community partners and the students that are serving at those sites,” Dolezal said.
Dolezal said the event could provide an opportunity for seasoned volunteers who got back from the spring Alternative Service Break (ASB) trip to volunteer in Moscow. She said she hopes students who went on spring ASB had a good experience and want to continue volunteering in the community.
“Our students who just came back from spring ASB trips, we encourage them to participate in Saturday of Service,” Dolezal said. “Saturday of Service is a way to get those people plugged back into the community and service opportunities here.”
Dolezal said she thinks spending time with Saturday of Service is time well spent.
“Volunteering is the best way to spend your time,” Dolezal said. “I know that personally it’s always been a valuable experience and you walk away from volunteering feeling like you’ve done something good for somebody else.”
Dolezal said Saturday of Service is a good way to get acquainted with the service opportunities in the Moscow area.
“I think too for students who maybe are new or just aren’t aware of the kind of service opportunities here in Moscow and Pullman it’s a really good way to familiarize yourself with at least one of the organizations,” Dolezal said.
Corey Bowes can be reached at [email protected]