Continually serving the community — Annual volunteer event, Make a Difference Day takes place Saturday Oct. 26

file photo by jesse hart | rawr Savannah Engel, a Saturday of Service site leader, dumps shredded paper onto a conveyer belt at Moscow Recycling Center last year. Make a Difference Day, Oct. 26, is another opportunity for students to serve their community through various projects.

Every October about 500 University of Idaho students sign up to volunteer in the Moscow community for Make a Difference Day.

file photo by jesse hart | rawr Savannah Engel, a Saturday of Service site leader, dumps shredded paper onto a conveyer belt at Moscow Recycling Center last year. Make a Difference Day, Oct. 26, is another opportunity for students to serve their community through various projects.

file photo by jesse hart | rawr
Savannah Engel, a Saturday of Service site leader, dumps shredded paper onto a conveyer belt at Moscow Recycling Center last year. Make a Difference Day, Oct. 26, is another opportunity for students to serve their community through various projects.

Jesse Wegley, a UI freshman, said he  signed up with his hall.

“I just like helping people,” Wegley said.

Wegley and his friend Joe Carter were among the first to sign up.

“I’m pretty excited for it,” Carter said. “It will be a great way to help out my new community. I think it is important for everyone to volunteer.”

According to Micaela Iveson of the ASUI Center of Volunteerism, there are about 25 different locations for students to serve at each year.

“Students do everything from helping at the Goodwill store to working with horses at Orphan Acres,” Iveson said. “It’s a great way to give back to the community.”

Iveson said that people can sign up individually or as a group. Groups can be a small group of friends, a student organization or a whole living community on campus. “Within each category, the group that has the most people sign up gets a prize,” Iveson said.

Sam Hermann, ASUI outreach coordinator, mentioned that he met a lot of his close friends through volunteering at Make a Difference Day.

“It’s about serving your community and a great way to meet new people,”Hermann said.

If students do not have the chance to sign up for Make a Difference Day, there are many other volunteer opportunities to serve through the Center of Volunteerism. All students have to do is visit the ASUI office to see what kind of service projects are going on.

Every month, there is a Serving the Palouse where students can volunteer in the Moscow-Pullman area.

Later on in the year there are Alternative Service Breaks and Saturday of Service.

The Alternative Service Breaks take place over the winter break and students can go to places like Peru, Ecuador and Georgia. Saturday of Service is a volunteer opportunity that takes place in the spring semester.

“There are always opportunities to serve,” Iveson said.

Make a Difference Day takes place from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26.

Claire Whitley can be reached at [email protected]

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