Butler Volunteer Center

This past month, the VC and Butler students have been busy volunteering all over Indianapolis!

Thrifty Threads

A group of 7 students headed to Thrifty Threads, a thrift store of the Julian Center, for a few hours during February. This thrift store is a partner with the Julian Center, a safe haven for victims of domestic violence. Individuals from the Julian Center receive vouchers for Thrifty Threads in order to shop there. All are welcome to shop at Thrifty Threads, but the organization’s main focus is for victims of domestic violence.

The VC and Butler students spent time sorting winter and summer clothing into men’s, women’s, or children’s piles.

• Question: What was your favorite part of your experience at Thrifty Threads?
• Answer: “I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Thrifty Threads, its mission, and its connection to the Julian Center. This gave me a sense of purpose and allowed me to understand how my service was affecting others.”

Second Helpings

A group of 6 students went to Second Helpings community kitchen to help prepare meals that were eventually delivered to soup kitchens, community centers, or other similar places to use as meals for the hungry. Second Helpings receives donations of perishable and overstocked food in order to prepare meals for thousands of individuals in our community and distributes these meals free of charge to places all over Indianapolis.

The VC and Butler students helped cut potatoes and steak into cubes to prepare meals for the hungry. Afterwards, the group had the chance to eat dinner together at Second Helpings!

• Question: What was your favorite part of your experience at second helpings?
• Answer: “Knowing what my contributions were going to and how I was helping!”

The Children’s Museum:

A total of 5 students helped out at the Children’s Museum one afternoon in February doing various tasks. Students helped with things like coach checking, ticket checking, and crafting! The ticket checkers counted the amount of people that entered or left the museum… there were over 12,000 people that came that day! The table crafters helped organize fun activities for children at the museum. There was even a station where visitors could take a picture and put it on a $100 bill in celebration of President’s Day.

• Question: What was your favorite part of your experience at The Children’s Museum?
• Answer: “Seeing the different people who attended, helping out the current workers, and enjoying a new atmosphere and experience!”
• Answer: “Meeting new people and seeing friendly faces!”
  

The Volunteer Center and Butler students have been pretty busy during the past month, spending time volunteering in the area!

First, during the month of January, the VC and BU students spent two different Saturdays at the St. Vincent DePaul Distribution Center! The SVDP Distribution Center is a place that receives donations of any sort: appliances, clothing, bedding, furniture, and any kind of household item. These things are then made available to the poor and needy in our community. Students had the chance to be ‘personal shoppers’ for individuals in need of specific items!

If you want to find out more info about the SVDP distribution center, visit their website!

Second, the VC, BU students, and students from Howe High School made a trip to Gleaners Food Bank on a Friday afternoon! Everyone had the chance to help out in the food bank that serves as the storehouse for millions of pounds of food and other products that go out to the Indianapolis community. Together, they helped package more than 4,000 lbs of food!!

If you want to learn more about Gleaners, visit their website!

Sit tight and wait to hear what the VC and BU students are doing during the month of February! Want to get involved on service events like these? E-mail us: volunteer@butler.edu and ask to be on our listserv to find out about all of our events and projects!

Joining an estimated three million volunteers, the Butler University Volunteer Center took groups of students on two projects the day before and the day of Make a Difference Day. On this National Day of Doing Good, USA Weekend and HandsOnNetwork collaborated to designate one day, October 27^th, a day to raise awareness of how important service is in our nation. With thousands of projects available for search on their website, these organizations sought to “celebrate the power of people to use their time, talent, voice and money to create change”.

The Volunteer Center logged more than 50 hours in these two days at both Auntie Mame’sChild Development Center and at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. At Auntie Mame’s, volunteers helped decorate the facilities and facilitate games at their annual Halloween Fall Festival. On October 27^th, volunteers went to the IMA and helped to Build a Beach that surrounds the island that is a part of their 100 Acres. To learn more about Make a Difference Day 2012 and find ways to get involved for next year, check out their website at : http://www.usaweekend.com/section/MDDAY/Make-A-Difference-Day

The Volunteer Center and Butler celebrated Make a Difference Day last month. Thanks to everyone who contributed their time and hands to make a difference!

The Volunteer Center is spreading the word about about Make a Difference Day on October 27, 2012. How will you make a difference?

Post a project, get involved!

The BU Volunteer Center is getting ready for Make a Difference Day 2012! How will you make a difference?

What the Volunteer Center has accomplished with your help over the past two months!

Last week the Volunteer Center paired with the Red Cross and PAWS to have a blood drive. The drive was very successful with 95 attempts and 75 units collected. The Red Cross expected to have around 60 units collected so we were way over our expected amount! A unit equals a pint of blood and each pint can save up to 3 lives. That means that after one day of donating Butler students helped saved over 200 lives! Thanks to everyone who came out and donated blood. We will be having another blood drive in February.

Why should college students get involved volunteering? Aside from a free lunch, t-shirt, and some extra credit in class, believe it or not, there are a few other reasons to volunteer.

For First/Second Year Students

Statistics show that most students who volunteer in high school drop back on their volunteer hours once they come to college.  Instead of getting lost in your transition from living at home to on campus, why not try to stick with volunteering? Keeping up with your volunteer projects from high school is probably easier than you think. So many of BU’s clubs and organizations address types of social issues from across the spectrum.  Getting involved early on will help keep your passion alive for whatever issues are important to you.

For Third/Fourth Year Students

For students just starting the epic search for a job after college, checking out some volunteer opportunities is a great place to start. First, think about what you’re passionate about and then go volunteer with an organization or group that supports that cause. It’s a great way to directly find out what a company or organization does, while at the same time getting some great experience.

What’s in it for the Student Volunteer?

Whether you’re a first year student or a fourth year student, there’s always a practical reason to volunteer your time.  Even though the examples above are sufficient reasons to start volunteering, there truly is a bigger, more meaningful reason to get involved. Those who volunteer frequently can easily explain it but for those just beginning the path of a volunteer, it might be harder to place a finger on the true definition of this motive to volunteer. It’s that overarching feeling of reaching out to an organization or a group of people in whatever way that you can. It’s being able push the pause button on our own concerns and stresses of the day so we can help out someone who really needs it.

So how are you going to get involved volunteering? Will you let your everyday life as a student shape how you volunteer? Or will you let your volunteer involvement shape your life?

This Saturday September 29th, the BU Volunteer Center will be helping Keep Indianapolis Beautiful work towards their goal to mulch more than 4,000 trees!