Nebraska Wesleyan University students begin their college careers raking leaves, painting walls, and organizing shelves at Lincoln nonprofit organizations as part of the annual “Lend-A-Hand to Lincoln.”
It’s an opportunity for students to serve their new community and develop an affection for giving back.
So it’s only appropriate that members of the class of 2012 wrap up their college careers with a final service project, Leave Your Print on Lincoln.
For three hours on a cold February morning, soon-to-be graduates volunteered at the Center for People in Need, a Lincoln organization that provides comprehensive services and opportunities to support low income, high need families.
Students pulled tags off of more than seven pallets of overstock clothing, bedding, and housewares that were donated by businesses including Sears, Walmart, K-Mart, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
Nebraska Wesleyan senior Kate Eaton found Leave Your Print on Lincoln helpful in looking at the big picture of education and service.
“It brought our Nebraska Wesleyan service experience full circle,” she said. “From Lend-A-Hand to Leave Your Print, we had the chance to see how service has been present in all four years as a student. Service projects like this one at the Center for People in Need help me appreciate how fortunate I am to have the life I do.”
Leave Your Print followed on the tails of a recent service trip to Kansas City, where NWU students saw poverty firsthand. That experience motivated senior Nolan Andrews to join his peers for Leave Your Print.
“It impacted me in numerous ways,” Andrews said of the Kansas City service trip. “But mainly it made me angry with the system that truly needs changed.”
Spending three hours to volunteer with Leave Your Print was soon a priority for Andrews.
“Our society will never fix itself,” he said. “It needs us and our peers who have unlimited potential when it comes to changing the world.”
“We all have been lucky enough to attend a private university,” Andrews added. “So we all need to make use of these great opportunities and help others in any way that we can. Service projects are the easiest way to accomplish this.”
NWU Service Challenge
In addition to helping the Center for People in Need, the seniors were able to help the NWU student body further reach its goal of collectively volunteering 3,000 service hours during the spring semester. To date, students, faculty and staff have volunteered over 500 hours in five weeks.