The Living-Learning Communities are delighted to share with you the exciting service opportunities our students participated in during the 3rd annual Living-Learning Community Day of Service. The LLC Day of Service is designed to get LLC students connected with the larger Springfield community and connected with a non-profit organization in need of support and assistance from community members. The LLC Day of Service is the recipient of the DOSA 2015 Outstanding New Program and recipient of the August 2015 Service Program of the Month from the Midwest Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls. 176 LLC students participated in the LLC Day of Service. Together, these students served 14 local community organizations and performed more than 500 hours of valuable service.
Our partners for LLC Day of Service 2015 were:
Diaper Bank of the Ozarks, Discovery Center, Downtown YMCA, Fassnight Creek Farm, Gay and Lesbian Center of the Ozarks, Habitat for Humanity Restore, Harmony House, MSU Campus Garden, Newborns in Need, Ozarks Food Harvest, Ronald McDonald House at Cox South, The Drew Lewis Foundation at the Fairbanks, The Kitchen, Inc., Watershed Committee Jordan Creek Clean-up.
Our students shared the following thoughts with us after serving:
“The LLC Day of Service embodies the pillar of community engagement and demonstrates our University’s dedication to creating a positive impact in our community.”
“I was really worried and stressed about college but then I saw how (some) people had to live and how scared they must have been. Seeing (them) woke me up and gave me a new perspective.”
“I learned how much of an impact a single person can have.”
This event was popular among LLC students, all spaces were filled within 96 hours and more than 50 students signed up on the waiting list. Because of the significant interest and inability to provide all students on the waiting list with a service opportunity during this Day of Service, it was apparent another large LLC-wide service experience was necessary in the Fall semester. Additional opportunities were created in the month of September for all communities and individual LLCs are continuing to express great desire and motivation to continue serving others.
We are excited to share with our LLC students the opportunity to put the University’s Public Affairs Mission into action. Our students are great participants and have provided so much to our University and Springfield community. We are proud of them and their work and look forward to many more service events, including a clothing and supply drive to support foster children, playing ghouls and goblins at a local community center haunted house, and engaging with Springfield’s homeless youth population. We look forward to seeing what our students accomplish this year!