Springfield College to Devote Oct. 1 to Community Service
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Sept. 28, 2009 – For the 12th annual Humanics in Action Day, Springfield College’s students, faculty and staff will appear throughout the city in gold and maroon tee shirts this Thursday, Oct. 1, to perform a day of concentrated community service.Springfield College President Richard B. Flynn will welcome about 1,600 campus volunteers at Blake Track, at 9:30 a.m., before they embark on more than 125 projects, mostly in the neighborhood surrounding the campus. The 125 projects are symbolic of the college’s 125th anniversary, being celebrated this academic year.
Also speaking at the opening ceremonies will be Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Old Neighborhood Council President Omega Johnson, and Springfield College Student Government President Matthew Ferry.
College work groups will perform services for more than 98 schools, community organizations, churches, senior citizens’ facilities, city agencies, and individual neighbors. They will conduct educational projects for school children, do indoor and outdoor painting projects at the homes of elderly neighbors, perform clean-up/fix-up projects, plant landscaping, and complete a host of other indoor and outdoor services.
Also conducting Humanics in Action Day community service projects will be the 10 regional campuses of the college’s School of Human Services in Boston, Mass.; Los Angeles and San Diego, Calif.; Wilmington, Del.; Tampa Bay, Fla.; Manchester, N.H.; Charleston, S.C.; Houston, Texas; Milwaukee, Wis.; and St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Humanics in Action Day augments the college’s year-round service programs in which students perform projects, often related to their studies, in schools, neighborhood organizations, and city programs. Annually, Springfield College students contribute more than 133,000 hours of service. Earlier this year, the college was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll and earned the community engagement classification of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Springfield College initiated Humanics in Action Day in September 1998. It was the idea of Distinguished Springfield Professor of Humanics Peter Polito and leaders of the New Student Orientation program to revive and expand an event described in the 1918 Springfield College yearbook. In the college’s early years, student work groups volunteered to improve the developing campus. Since 1998, Humanics in Action Day has been a day of service to the local community.
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