Springfield College Devotes Tomorrow to Community Service for Annual Humanics in Action Day
October 4, 2010SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Oct. 4, 2010 – Springfield College’s students, faculty and staff – 1,900 of them -- will perform a day of concentrated community service throughout the city this Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010, for the college’s 13th annual Humanics in Action Day.
Springfield College President Richard B. Flynn will welcome campus volunteers at Blake Track, at 9:30 a.m., before they embark on about 113 projects, mostly in the neighborhood surrounding the campus. Also speaking at the opening ceremonies will be Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and Springfield College Student Trustee Kimberly Ayer.
College work groups will perform services for schools, churches, senior citizens’ facilities, child care centers, community organizations, city agencies, and individual neighbors. They will conduct educational projects for school children, do indoor and outdoor painting projects, perform clean-up/fix-up projects, plant landscaping, and complete a host of other indoor and outdoor services.
Eastern Ave. will receive special attention this year from college work groups at several sites beginning with the men’s soccer team clearing a lot and planting tulips at Save Our Kids Youth Center. At the opposite end of the avenue, members of the men’s and women’s tennis teams will continue their several-year tradition of service at St. Rachael’s FBH Church. They will trim hedges, mow lawns and clean the property. They’ve helped the church in other ways throughout the years, such as by working to secure a listing for it on the National Register of Historic Places. Among other service sites on Eastern Ave. are Springfield Academy Middle School, William N. DeBerry School, Mason Square Veterans Outreach Center and the Old Hill Neighborhood Council office.
Humanics in Action Day augments the college’s year-round service programs in which students perform projects, often related to their studies, in schools, neighborhood organizations, and city programs. Annually, Springfield College students contribute more than 150,000 hours of service. Earlier this year, the college was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. It has also earned the community engagement classification of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Also conducting Humanics in Action Day community service projects on various dates this year will be the 10 regional campuses of the college’s School of Human Services in Boston, Mass.; Los Angeles and San Diego, Calif.; Wilmington, Del.; Tampa Bay, Fla.; Manchester, N.H.; Charleston, S.C.; Houston, Texas; Milwaukee, Wis.; and St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Springfield College initiated Humanics in Action Day in September 1998. It was the idea of Distinguished Springfield Professor of Humanics Peter Polito and leaders of the New Student Orientation program to revive and expand an event described in the 1918 Springfield College yearbook. In the college’s early years, student work groups volunteered to improve the developing campus. Since 1998, Humanics in Action Day has been a day of service to the local community.
