SEMO students donate time, effort

As a way of giving back -- and saying thank you -- to the community for its support of Southeast Missouri State University, a little more than 200 students are fanning out across Cape Girardeau this week as part of Southeast Serves.

Campus Life director Michele Irby said this is the first year Southeast Serves has been conducted, but there have been different versions of it through the years. Students will be doing a variety of projects including creating cards and coasters to be delivered to local nursing homes and the Veterans Home, yard work, helping Habitat for Humanity and Southeast's Facilities Management department, highway clean up, and raking and shoveling mulch at Chateau Girardeau.

About 25 different projects were available for students to sign up for. Irby said the students will log 1,200 hours of service. Some are doing multiple events on multiple days, but the average shift is two hours for most events.

Megan Johnson, a graduate assistant in campus life, said some students volunteered at agencies they'd never been to before. And international students have gotten involved in different ways and learned new things about the community, Irby said.

Coming up today, students will host a Big Brothers Big Sisters fun night from 6 to 8 p.m. at the North Rec Center. Saturday, students will help out at Messy Morning, an event for young children, at the Show Me Center, set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Thursday's expected storms moved some of the service events to today, making it extra busy. "We're definitely looking forward to a really fun-filled day; lots of volunteers and lots of good outreach into the community," Johnson said.

In the past couple of years, Irby said she's heard from incoming students that they had volunteered in high school and were looking for ways to connect once they arrived here. "This is the first year the university has hired a community service graduate assistant [Johnson], so the ... purpose is to increase partnerships with local agencies" and trying to connect students with the community.

"We're looking forward to making it an annual event," Irby said.

Plans are to offer students a chance to participate in projects in the fall. "We really believe that students that connect with the institution are happier, they're more successful and more likely to stay until graduation," Irby said.

Senior Mollie Laramore was on the planning committee for Southeast Serves, so she's been involved in the event for a few months. She helped out at Habitat for Humanity and a truck to table event where food was handed out to area needy families.

A member of Gamma Sigma Sigma, Laramore said students could sign up for any project that struck their fancy, whether they were involved in an organization or not.

"Once you do it once, you always want to go back and help people over and over," Laramore said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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