Wright State employees given time to volunteer during workday

Wright State University employees and students can make a difference by volunteering with several local organizations during a special community service day.

During We Serve U Day on Friday, July 19, Wright State faculty and staff can take time off from work to volunteer at the Dayton Food Bank, Hannah’s Treasure Chest and Five Rivers MetroParks as well as with Wright State’s We Serve U and the new Raid Our Closet clothing service for students.

“The importance of service to the community is part of our university’s mission and is ingrained in our culture,” said President Cheryl B. Schrader. “We Serve U Day provides Wright State employees and students an opportunity to collectively give back in one coordinated effort.”

The service day is organized by We Serve U, which encourages Wright State employees to provide their time and skills to engage in community service opportunities.

“One of the things that has always struck me about the university mission statement is it’s right there in our mission — to help the communities that we serve — and this is the first opportunity we have as a group to go out and affect the community at large,” said Joanie Hendricks, senior institutional research analyst and co-chair of We Serve U. “I think people really want to give back and this is a great opportunity.”

Dayton Food Bank (56 Armor Place) volunteers will bag produce, sort donations, help in the garden and load donations into cars. “The Food Bank is helping people who were affected by the tornadoes so we wanted to do what we could to help,” Hendricks said.

Those working at Hannah’s Treasure Chest (124 Westpark Road) will sort and organize donations, wrap diapers and prepare dental kits.

Other volunteers will do trail maintenance on the MetroParks Mountain Bike Area in Huffman MetroPark (4485 Union Road).

Volunteers will also collect and transport donations from two on-going We Serve U drives to Crayons to Classrooms (1750 Woodman Drive) and Wright State’s Raid Our Closet.

Volunteers will also sort and organize donations for Raid Our Closet, an on-campus service that provides free professional clothing to Wright State students entering the workplace.

Information about registering to volunteer is available on the We Serve U website. Details about each volunteer opportunity, including duties and available volunteer times, are also listed on the organization’s website.

We Serve U is also hosting donation drives at Wright State through July 18 for Raid Our Closet and Crayons to Classrooms, a community organization that is collecting school supplies for schools and students impacted by the Memorial Day tornadoes. More information on the donation drive is available at wright.edu/we-serve-u/projects.

“Buying school supplies is probably not at the top of the list when you’re trying to figure out where you’re going to sleep or how you’re going to feed your family,” Hendricks said.

We Serve U hopes the July 19 event is the first of many coordinated days of community service at Wright State. “Hopefully this is just a small step and we can do more in the future,” Hendricks said.