Days of Service 2024

In its 10th year, Kennesaw State volunteer project expands impact

By Kennesaw State University

April 8^th, 2024

By adding a letter to its name and five more days of volunteer opportunities, a Kennesaw State University tradition is celebrating its 10th anniversary by becoming Days of Service.

Founded in 2014 as Day of Service, the spring Saturday of volunteer opportunities has applied the work of more than 2,100 students, faculty and staff to assist with needs at schools, parks, nonprofit organizations and other community sites.

“We provided additional days this year as a way to engage more students who might not be available on weekends, but also to engage more faculty and staff on campus, who are able to take time during the week to go and serve as well,” said William Hargrove, assistant director of the Office of Student Volunteerism and Service.

This year Days of Service volunteers could select from 28 total projects, including one each day during the week leading up to the traditional Saturday event. The week kicked off on Monday at Tillman House Resource Center in Smyrna, which provides food assistance and other services for people in need.

Kennedy Walls, a sport management major from Atlanta, worked at Tillman House and also on Saturday to help the Kennesaw Mountain Trail Club with trail maintenance work.

“It is important for me to volunteer because it allows me to be connected with my community and feel good about making an impact on my community,” Walls said. “For Kennesaw Mountain Trail Club, I just had a great experience with this organization last year at Day of Service, and I wanted to do it again.”

For people with an affinity for animals, opportunities were provided with three rescue organizations specializing in birds, cats and dogs.

Ciara Bell, a chemistry major from South Fulton, helped make toys for rescued birds at Papayago Rescue House in Marietta.

“For me, making an impact in my individual community means engaging and participating in other unique communities,” Bell said. “Serving at Papayago Rescue House, I hoped to gain a deeper understanding of domestic and non-domestic animal rescuing and environmental ways to protect birds.”

Fifteen people volunteered to help Trees Atlanta with its annual native plants sale at the Carter Center on Saturday, including site leader Zaria Spears, also of South Fulton, who is a senior majoring in integrated health science.

“The main objective was to help the sale run as smoothly as possible by assisting customers with shopping and checkout, organizing plants, and setup and cleanup,” she said.

Hargrove said Days of Service has seen an increase of support from outside KSU this year from sponsors such as Delta Community Credit Union, Renasant Bank, Whataburger, North Cobb Rotary Club, Crane Elder Law Firm, Cornerstone Printing, and Target. In addition to financial support, the sponsors also had groups of volunteers participating in Days of Service projects.

For each of the approximately 500 volunteers, their reason for lending a hand was personal. For marketing major Justin Schymanski of Suwanee, volunteering pays back the kindnesses he has received.

“I also see volunteering as something that takes me out of the materialistic and reward-based world,” he said. “Through volunteering, I am providing my service for nothing more to help other people, and I enjoy that aspect of volunteering.”