USF Students Lend a Helping Hand
The USF Service Core is a student lead organization that seeks to connect students with volunteer opportunities. Service Core was created at the beginning of the semester by a few individuals interested in community outreach.
“Last year Austin Hoogie, who was a senior really had a passion for service. This was one of his decisions that he wanted to start up,” Allie Thiesse, Service Core Co-Leader says.
A small group of students did a few service events last year, which also lead to the development of the community service group.
This year Service Core helped organized Fall Fest, completed a fundraiser called “Alex’s Lemonade Stand”, hosted a Bone Marrow Drive, and helped out at the Avera Prince of Peace Senior Dance.
During Fall Fest, a group of kids from the Bowden Youth Center came to USF to play games and trick-or-treat through the dorms. “It was a lot of fun to have those kids have a safe experience where they could do all of these fun fall activities,” Thiesse says.
Service Core members also setup lemonade stands around campus, the proceeds went to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation which supports pediatric cancer research.
“We also hosted a Bone Marrow Drive where we got 224 individuals onto the National and International Bone Marrow Registry,” Thiesse says.
For the Senior Dance, about fifty students hosted a prom for the residents at the Avera Prince of Peace Retirement Community. Marianna Brawand, the leader of USF’s dance team, Pazaz, came up with the idea of hosting a senior dance. She then connected with the members of Service Core to get USF students involved.
“I was deciding on what events we could do together and what venues we could dance at and this came up,” Brawand says. “I thought, well we could dance for the residents!”
Volunteering doesn’t have to be a huge project. It can be as simple as a random act of kindness says Thiesse.
“If you’re just spending time with a person you truly are serving them in a way that is very valuable. Being able to see everyone so happy to be serving and the people being served equally as happy,” says Thiesse.
On Wednesday December 7th from 10:00am-2:00pm the Service Core will be tying fleece blankets for Theresa’s Orphanage. Students can also write letters to Santa for the Make a Wish Foundation. Once completed, the letters will be dropped off at Macy’s and each letter will donate $1 to the foundation.
Story by Whitney Fryer, Ellie Herman, Jill Langland, & Casey Kelderman
