Patuxent Habitat for Humanity, Leah’s House and other local organizations join in to kick off “St. Mary’s College Cares” Campaign
St. Mary’s College of Maryland proudly launches St. Mary’s College Cares, a student-driven, community-service campaign. The St. Mary’s College Cares campaign, which will be an ongoing initiative to promote student volunteerism, will kick off in April, National Volunteer Month, with a goal to infuse 1,000 community-service hours into the St. Mary’s County community in an ambitious one-month span.
Starting on Saturday, April 6, and each weekend throughout the month, community members will find St. Mary’s College volunteers—students, faculty, and staff—at the following local organizations: Patuxent Habitat for Humanity, Leah’s House, Hospice of St. Mary’s, Three Oaks Center, Point Lookout State Park, St. Clements Island Museum, Chesapeake Shores nursing home, ELMS Beach Park, Piney Point Lighthouse Museum, St. Mary’s Animal Welfare League animal shelter, and the St. Mary’s Caring soup kitchen.
“St. Mary’s College students are always reaching out to help better the St. Mary’s County community through volunteerism,” said St. Mary’s student and campaign committee member Cassey Elder ’13. “With the St. Mary’s College Cares campaign, we aim to raise awareness of the vast efforts students put forth to help others outside of the college boundaries.”
“We are passionate about service here at St. Mary’s College,” said Kelly Schroeder, assistant dean of students. “Whether it is through events or volunteer activities, our students, faculty and staff are finding meaningful ways to plug into the community. The St. Mary’s College Cares campaign is an initiative, driven by our students, to shed light on these efforts and further promote ways in which we can help our neighbors and strengthen our local community.”
To commence the initiative, the student campaign committee has released a service video capturing volunteer efforts of St. Mary’s College students and alumni in the past year. The video can be viewed on the official St. Mary’s College YouTube channel at http://vimeo.com/49018531.
St. Mary’s College of Maryland was recently named to the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. This designation is the highest honor a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement.