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The Office of Early Learning needs
new or slightly used clothes and shoes
for Pre-K children.
Children’s sizes: clothing, between 4-6; shoes between 9-11.
Drop off donations at the front desk of the
HT Edwards Building, 7:30am-4:45 pm:
440 Dearing Ext Oocated behind AutoZone)
HAHAHAHAHAHA
effie’s club follies - slap strip comedic burlesque
Saturday, 8/15. new earth music hall
(formerly dub blur)
see events section for details.
8 FLAGPOLE.COMAUGUST 12,2009
Getting to Know Athens
Through Volunteering Locally
new University of Georgia students, flock to Athens
this August, local non-profits and other organiza
tions prepare for a new crop of student volunteers.
Many of these local operations rely on volunteers, and UGA
students provide excellent and willing helpers for the variety
of needs each organization has. "In the 2007-2008 academic
year, over 10,000 UGA students contributed nearly 300,000
hours of service through community service, student activi
ties and academic service-learning courses," says Dr. Shannon
O'Brien Wilder, the Director of the Office of Service-Learning at
UGA. "This equates to nearly $5.8 million dollars in volunteer
time contributed to tutoring, senior citizen services, youth
development, English as a Second Language, health and nutri
tion, community and economic development, homelessness,
hunger and the arts, to name a few." And, she says, "Athens
has a variety of places that need volunteers constantly, and
anyone interested in volunteering can find an organization
about which they will be passionate."
"People have different reasons for volunteering, from hav
ing a personal interest in the cause to simply wanting to meet
different people while accomplishing something worthwhile,"
says Professor Fazal Khan, an assistant professor at the UGA
law school and board member for local non-profit AIDS Athens
(www.aidsathens.org). "Whatever the motivation, the end
result is invariably beneficial for the community organization
and the volunteer," he says. And the benefits to the organiza
tion go beyond the obvious: "At AIDS Athens, as with most
non-profits constrained by tight budgets, volunteers are impor
tant to help us extend our services to as many people as pos
sible," Khan says. "However, beyond the financial and logistical
benefits, having volunteers at AIDS Athens spreads knowledge
Communications students should "connect with nonprofit
organizations that they may be passionate about and inquire
about volunteering with their communications person. If the
organization does not have a communications person, then the
student can offer to perform communications-related work for
the organization."
A popular volunteer opportunity for both undergraduate
and graduate students is at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Athens
(www.athensbgca.com), which often need volunteers to help
with afterschool programs and homework tutoring on weekday
afternoons. Additionally, the Clarke County School District
recruits mentors and tutors from the local community. UGA
Law Professor Lonnie Brown, who strongly advocates students
volunteering for local organizations, describes volunteering for
the school system as "a great opportunity for UGA students"
and "extraordinarily worthwhile." Mentors, however, must com
mit to spending one hour per week with a child, so interested
persons should consider their availability.
A particularly unique-to-Athens volunteer opportunity is
Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (www.rfbd.org, 706-549-
1313), an organization whose Georgia unit started in 1953
and which has been in its current Athens location since 1967.
"Student volunteers are valuable to Recording for the Blind
and Dyslexic for many reasons," says RFBD production assis
tant Kane Stanley. 'They have a grasp of technology and can
learn how to use our recording equipment quickly, they help
us spread the word about Recording for the Blind and Dsylexic,
which leads to more volunteers, and they are excited about
volunteering and bring new ideas to the table." He invites
anyone into the Athens office for an orientation, saying "Don't
hesitate to get started!"
about our mission and raises awareness that there is a press
ing need for the vital services we offer." The more students
and others who find themselves involved in various volunteer
opportunities, the more people who learn about the valuable
services that alt of those organizations provide.
There are various local opportunities in which students can
get involved. For anyone who doesn't know where to begin in
terms of finding volunteer opportunities, a good place to start
is HandsOn Northeast Georgia (www.handsonnortheastgeorgia.
org), a volunteer center that constantly compiles a directory of
opportunities for both individuals and groups. "We partner with
over 70 agencies in the community to provide a central website
where people can find the numerous ways to get involved, from
helping at the food bank to ushering at the Morton Theatre or
working on a Habitat house to coaching a youth soccer team,"
says Art Ordoqui-Payton, the Community Programs Director of
Community Connection, which manages HandsOn Northeast
Georgia. For more information or help with volunteering,
contact them at 706-353-1313 or at info@handsonnortheast-
georgia.org. Many groups also list current opportunities in
the "Help Out!" section of the Bulletin Board in each week's
Flagpole.
Volunteering also offers an opportunity to gain practical
experience regarding a student's major or desired profession.
For example, Marian Higgins, Grady College Career Consultant
at UGA's Career Center, suggests that Journalism and Mass
Near the other end of the spectrum in terms of the pro
gram's age is BikeAthens' Bike Recycling Program, which is
still just a few years old. The program repairs and outfits old
bicycles and then passes them on with a helmet and bike
lock to social service agencies like the Athens Area Homeless
Shelter, in order to help people in need to have transportation
independence. According to the BikeAthens web site (www.
bikeathens.com), "volunteers need not have any knowledge of
bicycle maintenance," they need "just be willing to get their
hands dirty" working on bikes.
There are many other volunteer opportunities in Athens,
far too numerous to list, from serving with Court-Appointed
Special Advocates for Children (CASA, at www.athensoconee-
casa.org), to helping out at soup kitchens like Our Daily Bread
on Oconee Street (www.oconeestreetumc.org), to getting
involved with any of Athens' many environmental organizations
like the Upper Oconee Watershed Network (www.uown.org) and
others. Next week, the second part of this story will highlight
several more local organizations that make frequent use of vol
unteers, as well as soliciting inside advice from local non-profit
directors and others on how to make any volunteer experience
its most worthwhile.
Katherine Shell
To be continued...
JASON CROSBY