The Leadership and Service Center organized another successful Service Saturday, a monthly day of connecting the community to service opportunities. Students, faculty and service leaders gathered on the terrace in between Thomas Cooper Library and Longstreet Theatre at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. By 9 a.m., volunteers had formed a sizable line stretching as far back as the Thomas Cooper Library.
For a number of students, Service Saturday September was their first experience with the arduous and rewarding opportunity. Lowerclassmen represented a significant number of the volunteers, but all students who showed were enthusiastic to emanate the spirit of charity central to the campus. Coordinators from the Leadership and Service Center were delighted by the turnout.
A little less than a dozen charitable organizations, represented on and off the Carolina campus, set up service stations within an enclosure on the terrace. Students were then able to visit these service stations and locate service projects that best reflected their interests. Some organizations were geared towards environmental projects such as the Friends of Harbison State Forest, The Green Quad Community Garden, and The USC Belser Arboretum. Others had social and humanitarian focuses including Habitat for Humanity, Lexington Interfaith group, Tucker’s Center and Children’s Center at USC.
Volunteers and service leaders, like second-year exercise science student David Copeland, believe Service Saturdays leave behind positive and profound effects on volunteers and the campus as a whole.
“[Service Saturdays are important] because they bring the entire Carolina community together to work on awesome service projects across the whole South Carolina community, whether it’s in Lexington or here in Columbia,” Copeland said.
Coordinator and Leadership Coach Luis Sierra shared his thoughts on all the positives brought to the community and the campus through the Service Saturday program.
“Service Saturdays are one of the very first opportunities students can take advantage of,” Sierra said. “If you ask many students how they started getting involved, they say: Service Saturday.”
The service program has witnessed in an increase in student engagement since the beginning of the semester. The program drew a crowd of close to 200, up from 140 in August, according to Sierra. Many students, especially among the freshman, decided immediately that the program would be a reoccurring experience for them and also shared that they would bring more friends along to enjoy the incredible experience next time around.