The Lowell Bennion Community Service Center is celebrating 20 years of service on campus by encouraging others to lend a hand.
Over the next 20 weeks, the Bennion Center will be promoting service in the community and among students. The center released a handbook for the holidays to inform the public about convenient and easy service opportunities. In seven steps, the handbook explains the process of turning an idea about service into a completed project.
“The Bennion Center wanted to give the tools we use to educate students to the public,” said Alicia Geesman, the Bennion Center’s director of alumni and donor services. “We’re encouraging groups to participate, because it’s the numbers that make the difference in service.”
For people who don’t want to generate and execute their own service projects, the center provides a list of needy causes. The projects range from donating food to animal shelters, teaching a skill or craft to at-risk youth or writing stories to help adults learn to read and write.
Service doesn’t have to be time-consuming and stressful — one or two hours out of the week is enough time to make a difference, Geesman said.
“We would like participants to reflect on their service and talk about what they’ve learned, their insights and satisfaction,” Geesman said. “It is their voices, not mine, that will inspire others to serve.”
Debbie Hair, an administrative assistant in the center, will use her Dutch oven cooking skills to prepare a New Year’s Eve meal for parents who have hospitalized children. Through the Adopt-A-Meal Program, the Ronald McDonald House charity offers support for families who have sick children.
“Like the hospital, we never close, and this means that there is a need for this service 365 days a year,” said Beth Eshelman, volunteer coordinator for the organization.
Geesman said service projects like Hair’s are successful, because a group can put a particular skill or talent to work.
For more information about service projects sponsored by the center or to get a copy of the new service handbook, stop by Union Room 101 or call 801-581-4811.