Dartmouth community service day expands statewide

Posted 04/16/98

Dartmouth Junior Rex Morey's vision, which created the first day of college-wide student volunteering last year, has expanded this spring to engage more than 3,000 students from 16 other New Hampshire colleges in similar service projects. They have followed Dartmouth's lead by creating day-long community service projects beginning on April 16 at Notre Dame College and ending with Dartmouth's program on Saturday, May 2.

"We were lucky to work with Campus Compact, an organization that links the colleges and universities of New Hampshire, to organize this year's New Hampshire service tour," Morey said. "I am very excited that the idea of volunteering is becoming popular with my generation and it has been very encouraging to see the commitment to service that the students and administration of Dartmouth College have shown."

Approximately 550 Dartmouth students, faculty, staff, and administrators will unite with over 50 Upper Valley non-profit organizations that day for a community service called DarCORPS, Dartmouth Community Outreach Projects. Despite the rain last year, students' projects included gardening at the Listen Center in White River Junction, Vt., loading trash into trucks for a clean up, reading to the elderly, running a fair for children, painting school rooms, and playing bingo and cards with residents at the retirement community Kendal At Hanover. Other students were bussed to the Hartford Historical Society where they cleaned windows and scraped tar off the kitchen floor of a house built in 1915.

Morey started the program last year with "the hope that this one day of volunteering will lead to continued service as participants understand the need in the Upper Valley and experience the positive feelings associated with helping others." During the fall, more than 250 freshman participated in a similar volunteer day, coordinated by undergraduates Nancy Bloomfield, Karen Mangold, and Zoe McLaren.

"The students have embraced this program with great enthusiasm and organizational skill," said Scott Brown, the dean of the Tucker Foundation, which has provided financial and organizational support for DarCORPS. "One day of service won't solve many problems, but it will open a door for many students who will find ongoing ways to demonstrate their compassion for others in our community."

DarCORPS is funded by various businesses throughout the community as well as on-campus organizations like the Tucker Foundation, the Bildner Endowment and the Coed Fraternity and Sorority Council.

The day will begin at noon on Saturday, May 2 with registration. Volunteers will be bused to their destinations and will return for a barbecue at Hanover High School.