Students and community members involved with the Bennion Community Service Center held an annual spring celebration Thursday, the day which Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. declared “Lowell Bennion Day.”
Bennion Center leaders began the banquet by reflecting on the past year and all of the successes and accomplishments the center has achieved.
“We hold our spring celebration each year as a way to celebrate and recognize the hard work of our student leaders and to welcome in next year’s leaders,” said Kate Bradley, a senior in sociology. “This year being our 20th anniversary, it was also a last hoorah to celebrate 20 years of service to the community.”
Bradley has been involved with the center for five years and has acted as a program director, a program coordinator, the vice president and this past year’s co-president of the center.
Jesse Soriano, director of the Utah Office of Ethnic Affairs, read the proclamation of “Lowell Bennion Day.”
“The Community Service Center is named after Lowell Bennion, a man who exemplified service and inspired thousands of others to follow him through devoted and effective practical humanitarian efforts in his own community and beyond,” Soriano said.
The center is ranked third in the nation in service learning by U.S. News and World Report and is recognized internationally as a center that engages its students in service to their communities.
More than 7,800 volunteers annually are involved with the Bennion Center, providing more than 250,000 hours of service in the community and $4.6 million in service to local communities each year, Soriano said. During the past 20 years, the center has worked with about 51,000 volunteers and totaled more than 1,632,000 hours of service, he said.
“This year the Bennion Center has been tremendously successful,” Bradley said. “I am so proud of the hard work our students leaders have put into pulling off so many amazing service projects. I have never seen such an incredible group of students than this year. They are dedicated, motivated and passionate individuals who deserve more praise than I can give them.”
For information about the Bennion Center, visit www.bennioncenter.org.