Spring Term 2009: Vermont Global Campuses Celebrate Community Stewardship

Each of the Vermont campuses takes great pride in the creative and dynamic ways in which they offer service and support to their communities.

Global Campus St. Johnsbury created a service project, called “Walking Green”, to raise money for a local family who lost their home and belongings in a fire. Participants asked community members for sponsorship as they walked around town for two hours picking up trash and cleaning up the community. Participants engaged in the project by collecting sponsorship money, walking, picking up trash, or helping to plan the project. The following is an article written about the event by participants of Global Campus St. Johnsbury:

Walking Green, by Amanda Daniels, Cristy Norman, and Aaron Sanville
For Walking Green people sponsored us for walking around Stevens Loop and picking up trash. The loop is 2.2 miles. We will give the money to a family who lost their home to fire. Some people are picking up trash and some are walking. We have one person to sit with the money and water and do registration. The event will be two hours and we will finish with an ice cream social.

Walking Green ended up collecting $475 dollars to donate to the LaCoste family. We had over thirty participants walking, picking up trash and supporting the group.

Global Campus Newport decided to complete two community service projects this spring term. For one project, participants decorated boxes for food donations, which were set-up around town specifically for Easter donations. Fifty dollars worth of food was donated to the NEKCA food bank!

Global Campus Newport participants also decided to green-up around the State Office building, where Global Campus classes are held. Although the weather was bad, about ten people braved the elements to help pick up trash together. In the small area around the building, the group gathered up six bags of garbage! Cigarette butts were plentiful!

“For Green-up Day we picked up six bags of trash from the lawn outside the State Conference Room. We wore gloves. We had a group of about ten people, despite the wind and rain.” – Debbie Thompson

Global Campus Hardwick moved campus locations halfway through the spring term. The Greensboro Bend church underwent renovations, and Global Campus moved to Heartbeet Farm. Participants intended to plant flowers around the church, but have postponed the project until after the renovations are complete. Global Campus Foundation donated $50 to help with church renovations.

Global Campus Springfield decided to help beautify the Springfield walking path as a community service project. We had a beautiful sunny spring day for our project but not much litter. Apparently the users of the path (which include many Global Campus participants) are picking up litter as they walk or run so the path has remained fairly clean. We had a great time walking and picking up what litter we found and enjoying each other’s company!

Global Campus Bradford decided to mix it up this spring term by hosting a wildly successful Hoedown Dance and Bake Sale as their community stewardship event. Folks who attended the event brought in non-perishable food items, which we donated to the food shelf. Many people donated home made baked goods for us to sell and raise money to support out campus. The campus staff decided the money should be used to offer a fun event to our community free of charge. So in the middle of June on a beautiful summer day, our campus offered a pizza party lunch and a game of miniature golf at Mr. Putz, all free of charge! We ended up going a bit over budget, but that got us excited about more fundraising events like this one in the future!

Global Campus Randolph has been working on a project to raise money for HEIFFER International, an aid organization that helps impoverished families worldwide become more self-reliant through the gift of livestock and training in their care. Our campus made collection jars and placed them at various locations around Randolph. We also received a generous grant of $200 from the Randolph Area Peer Support group (RAPS) to be used for this project. This fall we will choose which animals we would like to sponsor. You can read more about the HEIFFER program by clicking here.

The Randolph campus also participated in Green Up Day by walking around downtown Randolph collecting garbage. The Global Campus participants living at Pleasant Street house pick up trash often on their regular walks in the warmer months.

Global Campus Moretown did not prioritize a service project for the spring term and is currently brainstorming for their next community stewardship project.