Parkside Giveaway Day Saturday

On behalf of our good community partner, Parkside Neighborhood Center, I share this announcement of their upcoming Giveaway Day on Saturday.  Donations will be gratefully accepted on Friday, so I encourage you to clean out your closets, your attic, your basement, and bring any good, usable household items to benefit our neighbors in Maine's densest and most diverse neighborhood!  Volunteers are also needed both days to help make the whole thing work.  You are, of course, equally welcome to partake of the Giveaway, if you have need.  Please contact Rachel Horton White directly with any questions.  Regards, ATM

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Giveaway Day!  Will be held at Sacred Heart/St. Dominic's Parish on the corner of Sherman and Mellen Streets in Portland on from 10 am -1 pm.  This event is for all residents in Greater Portland in financial need. We will accept, as always, adult and baby clothing (warm weather clothing only), books, toys, and baby and household items.  We are especially looking for back-to-school items (backpacks, clothing) and household items (sheets, lamps, fans).  Cleaned and washed and bedbug-free please!  Diapers also accepted as donations. Drop-offs at Sacred Heart on Friday, July 20th from 9-11 am and 4-6 pm.   We're also looking for volunteers during both days, particularly from 12-2 pm on Saturday.  Please contact me at rachel.white@opportunityalliance.org  or 553-5940 if interested in volunteering. 

 

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Andrea Thompson McCall, Director

-Community Service Learning

-Religious and Spiritual Life

University of Southern Maine

P.O. Box 9300

Portland, ME 04104-9300

 

Phone 207-228-8284

FAX 207-228-8403

Boys and Girls Clubs needs help with Day for Kids!

Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine is in the process of Planning their Annual "Day for Kids" Event. This year it will be held at Riverton Park at the Boys & Girls Clubs Riverton Extension Program. (We will hold this event Outside pending weather cooperates and inside if it doesn't)

What: Celebrate a "Day for Kids" with Families/Mentors and Adults in their lives. Time to Play!

Activities: Mini Carnival (Face Painting, Games, Fun Run, Lunch, Prizes and so much more)

Date: Saturday, September 15th, 2012

Time: 11:00am - 2:00pm

*****They are looking for many volunteers to help in the areas like Face painting, Bean Bag Toss, Minute to Win it games, Relay Races, a Fun Run, and so much more. They will need helpers to set up / take down and run activity booths. They will also need lunch servers, someone to take photos and some adults to hang with kids that do not have an adult with them. They are also looking for some music for the day, if you know of anyone who would be willing to play kid appropriate music, please let them know as well.


Please contact Tiffanie Panagakos at tpanagakos@bgcmaine.org if you can help in any capacity. The minimum time commitment is only an hour!

all the best,
Stacy Normand
Programs Coordinator
Office of Community Service Learning
University of Southern Maine
207-780-4537

2011-2012 Community Service Learning Reports

It's great to be able to share good news!  In the academic year just past, USM students provided a total of 71,779 reported community service learning hours, impacting the community in areas including community and public service, support for persons with disabilities, domestic/sexual violence prevention, environmental, health, hunger and homelessness, education/youth, and more -- benefitting over 1,000 K-12 students through mentoring and tutoring alone!  Twenty-eight faculty members taught 44 academic courses that reported engaging students in service learning, with 927 students learning by serving in community partner settings.  The "monetized"  value of all reported student service to the community is $1,208,768.06!

 

The full reports are here: www.usm.maine.edu/community. I offer public congratulations and thanks to our Programs Coordinator and AmeriCorps VISTA member Stacy Normand, who authored the Impact Report; to Alicia (Sampson) Ethridge, Service Learning Coordinator, who worked with faculty and students to incorporate service learning into courses; to Belana Warmflash, Mentoring Coordinator, who worked with King Middle School and Portland High School to match and support mentors; and to Sherry Whittemore, Education and Community Coordinator, who provided training and support for students serving in K-12 schools and after school programs, for their critical contributions to this work. 

 

I invite you to share the news, and ask us how  you can get involved as we move forward, delivering on the USM promise of "engaged learning that transforms lives and communities!"

 

 

 

Andrea Thompson McCall, Director

-Community Service Learning

-Religious and Spiritual Life

University of Southern Maine

P.O. Box 9300

Portland, ME 04104-9300

 

Phone 207-228-8284

FAX 207-228-8403

Agency on Aging Client Needs Help

Once again our community partners at the Southern Maine Area Agency on Aging have reached out to us (because students have responded willingly in the past!) to ask for help on behalf of a client.  He is an elderly man who is in a rehab facility, and who needs help to collect, box, and move his personal belongings from the furnished apartment where he lived before he went into the facility.  He will transport himself, and meet a volunteer (or better, two volunteers) at the apartment, where he can oversee but is not physically able to collect and box his personal belongings.  No furniture will be moved; only clothing, books and papers, and other assorted personal belongings, amounting to about 4 or 5 boxes.  The apartment is on Mellon Street in Portland, and the belongings need to be transported and delivered to the rehab facility, Saint Joseph Manor on Washington Avenue in Portland.  If you can round up the boxes, so much the better!

 

If you can help, please contact Sylvia Harkins at the Southern Maine Area Agency on Aging, 396-6553 or sharkins@smaa.org.

 

Thanks for your consideration of this, and for all the fabulous service of all kinds performed by members of the USM community this academic year!  Our total of reported community service, service learning, and internship work for non-profit community partners in 2011-2012 is 71,779.6 hours!

 

Yours in commitment to community,

ATM

 

 

 

Andrea Thompson McCall

 Director of Community Service Learning

 University Interfaith Chaplain

University of Southern Maine

P.O. Box 9300

Portland, ME 04104-9300

 

Phone 207-228-8284

FAX 207-228-8403

Parkside Neighborhood Center Seeks Donations for Newborns!!

Hello Everyone,

Please see the following request sent to our office from Parkside Neighborhood Center:

I am writing with several urgent requests from clients. As you can imagine with the current economic outlook and continuing program cuts, we are seeing larger numbers of people without access to basic items. Most significantly, we are working with 3 pregnant women who have nothing for their babies. We are looking for any and all newborn baby items, including bassinet/crib/pack and play, baby clothing, blankets, stroller. We also have families looking for beds, a fan, a couch, and a kitchen table with chairs. Many thanks in advance, if you have any of these items (clean and bed-bug free), please contact Rachel Horton White at Rachel.White@opportunityalliance.org

all the best,
Stacy Normand
Programs Coordinator
Office of Community Service Learning
University of Southern Maine
207-780-4537

Can you help Parkside on Saturday?

A call for volunteer help from one of our close Community Partners, the Parkside Neighborhood Center:

 

Parkside Neighborhood Clean Up Day
May 19th, 10am to noon - meet at the Neighborhood Center, 85 Grant St.
Plant and flower sharing will be part of the Clean-Up : after you've done your trash stint, please pick up some flowers as a thank you!

Contact: Rachel Horton White

553.5940

rachel.white@opportunityalliance.org

 

 

 

 

 

Andrea Thompson McCall

 Director of Community Service Learning

 University Interfaith Chaplain

University of Southern Maine

P.O. Box 9300

Portland, ME 04104-9300

 

Phone 207-228-8284

FAX 207-228-8403

ATTN: Student Group Leaders, It's Data Reporting Time!

Hello Student Group Leaders!

I'm reaching out to you because our office is beginning our data collection for our annual report. This report will detail the community service done by USM students, and will be circulated among the faculty and staff. If your group has participated in community service this year, please send us the number of hours you have completed!If you have a spreadsheet or document where you keep a record of the service you have done, you can forward this on to me, and I can do the number crunching. In the report, I will make sure to specify the service done by your group so that they would get the publicity for it!

Some student groups have already submitted their hours, and between them they completed over 3,000 hours of service! Help us show the community what a positive impact student groups have on Greater Portland!

all the best,
Stacy Normand
Programs Coordinator
Office of Community Service Learning
University of Southern Maine
207-780-4537