The holiday season has arrived and service projects abound for students who want to give back during the last few weeks of the semester.
From clothing and food drives to gift-giving and off-campus volunteer opportunities, many organizations need volunteers and donations more than ever because of the current recession.
MU Volunteers, a group that provides volunteer opportunities to the Marquette community, is sponsoring a gift-giving drive called the Holiday Giving Tree. Coordinated by the Volunteer Center of Milwaukee, the program provides names and wish lists of needy people around Milwaukee to students, faculty and staff, who then purchase presents and return them to various drop-off locations around campus.
The Marquette community usually sponsors about 1,500 people through the Holiday Giving Tree, but that number was significantly lower this year.
“We asked for 800 names with the economy such as it is,” said Kathy Hawkins, chair of MU Volunteers.
Even with hard economic times, MU Volunteers requested more than 50 additional names after more students than anticipated offered to participate.
MU Volunteers also works with other service organizations to allow them access to Marquette’s campus for various service projects.
“We have Toys for Tots boxes set up at various places across campus,” Hawkins said. “We also collect for the military and help We Care Wisconsin that mails packages to those serving overseas. We have handmade outfits for over 200 dolls that were sent to the military in Iraq (and Afghanistan) to distribute to the children there.”
The Toys for Tots boxes are located in Lalumiere Hall, the 707 Building and in the Marquette Gym, Hawkins said.
Several other organizations and offices on campus have teamed up to make a difference this season. Raynor Library staff and Marquette Student Government are co-hosting a food drive and have teamed up with Hunger Task Force to distribute the food to needy families in Milwaukee.
“Recent reports have shown that the number of people seeking food assistance is rising every month,” said Sue Peacock, E-learning and instruction librarian at Raynor Memorial Libraries. “This is the first time the library is partnering with MUSG, and we are hopeful that our combined effort will result in a larger donation to the Hunger Task Force.”
Drop-off boxes for the food drive will be available in the lobby of Raynor, at the Information Desk in the Alumni Memorial Union and in the MUSG offices until Dec. 18.
Another group on campus has chosen to donate to a cause that hits home with many of its members. Sigma Delta Pi, Marquette’s Hispanic Honor Society, collects clothing that it donates to St. Adalbert, a primarily Spanish-speaking parish located on Milwaukee’s South Side.
After hearing former pastor Eleazar Perez speak four years ago on the plight of many of his parishioners — 85 to 90 percent of whom live below the poverty level — Sigma Delta Pi decided to put its efforts toward collecting clothes for the parish.
“I tell (my students) that what they may consider useless could be indispensable to these families,” said German Carrillo, Sigma Delta Pi adviser at Marquette and the organization’s national president. “I feel very fulfilled in doing this. We are dealing with a cruel reality and we’re only divided by a bridge.”
The drop-off spot for Sigma Delta Pi’s clothing donations is in the lobby of Lalumiere.
