Classes Are Off, Community Service Is On For Springfield College Annual ‘Humanics In Action Day’
September 19, 2006SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Sept. 19, 2006 – Springfield College will cancel classes for 2,000 students and members of its faculty and staff to perform more than 100 projects in the community during its annual day of concentrated service, Humanics in Action Day, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006, beginning at 9 a.m. on Blake Track on the campus.
College work groups wearing white and maroon tee shirts will provide services for more than 80 schools, shelters, churches, senior citizens’ facilities, city agencies, community organizations, and individual neighbors. They will help neighbors with clean-up/fix-up projects, plant landscaping and paint playground games on blacktop at schools, remove graffiti, conduct educational projects, and perform indoor and outdoor services throughout the city, but primarily in neighborhoods near the campus.
This year, the college will launch its “Mow and Snow” project at the event. Groups of students will take responsibility for yard maintenance and snow removal for elderly neighborhood residents during the academic year. Each group will meet its partnering neighbor and perform its first service of the year on Humanics in Action Day.
During the event, the college will host a cookout for its volunteers, participating neighborhood residents, and members of cooperating community organizations and city departments beginning at noon at Blake Track.
Springfield College’s Humanics in Action Day, and its other programs serving the Greater Springfield community, are among the reasons that the college recently was named one of the 25 “best neighbor” urban colleges in the United States. The “Saviors of Our Cities” list, prepared by Evan Dobelle, president of the New England Board of Higher Education, cites colleges that dramatically have strengthened the economy and quality of life in their neighboring community by their careful strategic planning and thoughtful use of resources. It includes colleges that are outstanding examples of community revitalization and cultural renewal, economic drivers of the local economy, advocates of community service, and urban developers, both commercially and in housing development.
Springfield College initiated Humanics in Action Day in September 1998 as a demonstration of its humanics philosophy that emphasizes education of the whole person in spirit, mind and body for leadership in service to others. The event augments the college’s year-round service programs in which students enhance their classroom learning by performing service projects related to their studies in schools, neighborhood organizations, and city programs. The college has held service days at various times throughout its history. The earliest example on record was in 1918.
