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UWO community donated more than 35,000 service hours in 2014

by | Jan 2, 2015 | Headlines

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh students, faculty and staff spent a great part of the 2014 calendar year engaged in community service directly impacting the greater Oshkosh community.

More than 2,300 UW Oshkosh students, faculty and staff donated nearly 35,000 hours of community service in 2014.*

Take a look at the various ways our UW Oshkosh community has given back in 2014:

Intercollegiate Athletics

  • Student-athletes in Women’s Volleyball, Men’s Cross Country/Track and Field, Women’s Track and Field, Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Men’s Soccer, Women’s Soccer, Football and Gymnastics donated more than 1,500 hours to support Oshkosh area events, fundraisers and mobile food pantries.

 

 

Student Organizations

  • American Red Cross Club — The club hosted blood drives at UWO and in community, worked with local churches and distributed and sorted holiday mail for veterans and service members.
  • UWO Habitat for Humanity-Campus Chapter — Members of the organization volunteer in a variety of ways with Habitat for Humanity of Oshkosh, including: building days, volunteering at the ReStore, helping with fundraisers and other projects as needed.

 

Fraternity and Sorority Life

  • 425 students in the 11 chapters at UW Oshkosh volunteered more than 14,000 hours.

 

Department of Residence Life

  • Salvation Army— Students volunteered at the Salvation Army to help prepare and serve lunch for those in need.
  • Gabriel’s Villa— Students volunteered at Gabriel’s Villa numerous times to visit with residents and assist with a nail polish party, decorating pumpkins, trick or treating and playing cards.
  • Run With The Cops — Students volunteered at the Run With the Cops 5K in October.
  • Puppy Chow Fundraiser — Students sold puppy chow in the Stewart Hall lobby to raise funds to donate to the Boys and Girls Club of Oshkosh.
  • Habitat for Humanity — Students volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Oshkosh.
  • Trick or Treating for non-perishable food items— Event planners went door-to-door in Evans Hall to collect non-perishable food items from residents for local food pantries.
  • Sorting letters to soldiers—Students assisted the Red Cross in sorting letters for soldiers.
  • Clarity Care— Volunteers traveled to Clarity Care Heritage Court to serve, as well as made May Day crafts with residents at the Gruenhagen Conference Center.
  • School Supply Drive — Students collected new or gently used school supplies for the Boys and Girls Club.
  • Shamrock Shuffle — Students volunteered at the Shamrock Shuffle 5K in March.
  • Boys and Girls Club — Volunteers helped the club in daily tasks and played with the children at the Club.
  • Citizenship Day — The Community Advisers, Senior Staff, and MIO volunteered at agencies within the community to help with anything that was needed for two hours in a morning or afternoon session.

 

University Staff Council

  • Celebration of Lights—60 volunteers served for 44 hours at the entrance hut for the Celebration of Lights.

 

CivilityWorks

  • Be The Change — 13 campus departments had a collection jar at their office for people to donate change for the Day By Day Warming Shelter. Through this effort, more than $280 was raised to serve the homeless in Oshkosh.
  • Bare Essential Campaign — 11 departments hosted collection boxes for clothing and food donations for St. Vincent de Paul and the Oshkosh Area Food Pantry.

 

Reeve Union

  • Oshkosh Area Community Pantry — The entire Reeve Union staff volunteered time at the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry as part of their January and August staff retreats.
  • Hands on Oshkosh — Once each semester students spend a Saturday morning in the Oshkosh community assisting an agency with a project. Students are onsite from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Sites include: Clarity Care, EAA, Growing Oshkosh, Habitat for Humanity, Smith Elementary and Growing Seeds of Change
  • Alternative Spring Break — Students participate in a week-long volunteer and cultural experience in a city outside of Wisconsin.
  • Volunteers on the Move — Volunteers on the Move is a one day of service volunteering opportunity open to UW Oshkosh students. This opportunity explores issues outside of the Oshkosh community. There are 2–3 trips offered, each with a different topic designed for students to serve, learn and experience a new perspective on a various topics.

 

Titan Volunteers

  • Titan Volunteers worked with many organizations throughout the Oshkosh community for events including bingo at two different nursing homes/assisted living facilities, as well as volunteering at Read Elementary, Oshkosh Area Food Pantry, Christine Ann Center, Toys for Tots, Senior Center, Humane Society, Dragon Boat Festival and Zoolaween.

 

Colleges, Departments and Offices

  • Human Kinetics and Health Education
    • Spooktacular — More than 100 physical education and elementary education volunteered time for the event, which featured physical activity games, prizes and treats for elementary-age children and their families.
    • Home School Fit for Kids — A collaboration with Oshkosh YMCA, UWO physical education majors planned and conducted the physical education program for area home-schoolers throughout the year at the YMCA twice a week for 60 minutes each time.
    • Middle School Physical Education Teaching Collaboration— UWO physical education majors assisted with instruction, assessments and fitness testing in Oshkosh Area School District Middle School Physical Education programs
    • Service Learning Hours—Through five different courses, students in the Human Kinetics and Health Education department volunteered at the OASD elementary schools during recess, at the YMCA for adapted aquatics swimming lessons, at Oshkosh West high school physical education classes, fishing with OASD special education students and coaching Special Olympics athletes.
  • Japanese Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
    • Oshkosh Taiko Initiative — The Oshkosh Taiko Initiative is a teaching project that aims at promoting cultural diversity in local communities through offering Japanese taiko-drumming performances and presentations at various cultural enrichment events at local schools. 16 UWO students donated their time through performing as part of the initiative.
  • UARC
    • Oshkosh Area Food Pantry — 20 UARC staff volunteered time at the Oshkosh Area Food Pantry to help stock shelves.
  • Mathematics
    • Oshkosh Math Circle — The Oshkosh Math Circle is an informal meeting of middle and high school math teachers from around Northeast Wisconsin and math professors at UW Oshkosh. Teachers and mathematicians work together at our meetings in solving rich problems that can generate conversations about teaching, problem-solving strategies, a variety of mathematics concepts and the Common Core content and practice standards.
  • Renewable Energy Institute
    • Staff in the Renewable Energy Institute volunteered at the Youth Leadership Oshkosh Earth Day Project and at the Oshkosh Area School District Charter Schools.

 

Faculty and Staff

Several UW Oshkosh faculty and staff volunteer their time to help with UWO-sponsored events and to serve on non-UW Oshkosh committees, boards and participate in other service organizations ranging from church youth groups to Rotary boards to Kiwanis Clubs to setting up AV equipment for church services.

For faculty member and Graduate Studies Dean Susan Cramer, it’s about seeing a need and making time to give back.

“My husband and I stained a new kiosk on the WIOUWASH Bike Trail,” Cramer said. “As a huge supporter, vocal advocate and campus role model of biking for both transportation and pleasure I felt it was important to keep building on the good works of others. A boy scout organized the building of a new kiosk on the bike trail. It sat all summer with its wood untreated. We saw a need, reached out to the local bike trail group, and volunteered our time and supplies.”

Several UW Oshkosh employees who are also alumni also volunteered their time to serve as USP Alumni Mentors.

  

Giving back through the USP

Throughout Fall 2014, UWO students participated in more than 11,000 hours of civic action as part of their Quest III courses in the University Studies Program, the University’s new general education program.

Quest III civic engagement ranged from the Wisconsin Agricultural Oral History Project to collecting route data for Oshkosh Transit to identifying service gaps at domestic violence service centers.

In addition to service completed through Quest III, UW Oshkosh students have been making an impact through volunteering on campus, through Hands On Oshkosh, Alternative Spring Break and additional short and long term volunteer opportunities.

Learn more:

 

*Service hours submitted by UW Oshkosh students, faculty and staff and does not encompass all service activities completed by UW Oshkosh or its employees.