OFFICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

CURRENT NEWS RELEASES

NEWS ARCHIVE

SPEAKERS' BUREAU

ATHLETIC NEWS

FINE ARTS EVENTS

CALENDAR

CAMPUS BULLETIN

ACADEME

HUNTINGTON UNIV MAGAZINE

Joe Mertz Center sponsors annual Fall Work Day

FOR RELEASE October 25, 2007

Nicholas Gould paints at Karen's Café , one of the many ways students helped remodel the café  for the new Meal Ministry at New Life Fellowship Church.

HUNTINGTON, IN—The Joe Mertz Center of Huntington University tied together campus and community Oct. 20 during the organization’s annual Fall Work Day.

The JMC has planned and coordinated this event to plunge students into community service since 1996. Volunteers divide up into groups, usually by floors, and are assigned a location and a project. JMC employees contact and are contacted by organizations or people who need volunteer help.

Stacie Cheek cleans a shower at the Historic Square Apartments.

This year, there were 215 volunteers including 208 students, five faculty, and two staff. Volunteers went to 18 different sites to offer assistance.

Sites and projects included the following:

• Roush Lake: set up tables and activities for Halloween Festival

• Parks & Recreation Department: planted trees

• Life Church: painted

  Amy Gould collects money for the American Red Cross Boot Shake. The students helped raise more than $1,000 for the Red Cross Disaster Relief Program.

• Good Shepherd Church: cleaned and mopped the stairwells and hallways, washed the windows in the children’s room

• Thornhill Nature Preserve: cleared the paths, trimmed bushes, and washed windows and benches

• Horace Mann Elementary School: repainted the U.S. map on the blacktop near the playground

• Forester Village: picked up trash and raked

• Home in the community: helped paint

• Helping Paws Adoption Center: trimmed bushes and pulled weeds

  Stephen Milliken trims down old roots and helps landscape at the Huntington City Township Public Library.

• Huntington University Women’s Auxiliary garage sale: staffed the cash register, arranged merchandise, carried purchased items, boxed items not sold, and took down tables

• Huntington County Humane Shelter: dumped 55 gallon tubs of old dog food in nearby field for deer to eat, and various work projects outside

  Alejandra Gomez wipes  windows at the Huntington Boys and Girls Club.

• Victory Noll: raked leaves, worked in the garden and visited with the sisters

• Boys and Girls Club: painted, cleaned inside, mulched, cleaned gutters, pulled weeds and re-landscaped

• Historic Square Apartments: painted and help remodel Karen’s Café for the New Life Fellowship Meal Ministry, cleaned two apartments for incoming tenants

• American Red Cross: took part in the Red Cross’ annual Boot Shake, collecting money from people driving by manned intersections

  Evelina Wongasari (front) and Saiko Yoshigami (back) pull weeds at the Helping Paws Adoption Center.

• Walnuts: a ministry from Trinity Church, collecting walnuts around the community to clear the land and help raise money for the church

• Huntington City Township Public Library: re-landscaped the property, trimmed hedges, pulled weeds, and planted new plants

• Forks of Wabash: raked and helped in the pumpkin patch

• Habitat for Humanity: took off shingling from a Park Street house and applied siding to the house.

Founded in 1992, the Joe Mertz Center for Volunteer Service has become an integral part of Huntington University campus life. During the 2006-2007 academic year, students, faculty and staff volunteered for more than 12,397.5 hours, serving more than 50 families, organizations and programs.

Huntington University’s Joe Mertz Center for Volunteer Service is a student-directed organization that mobilizes the campus community for Christian service. The JMC aims to involve students in the local community, instill a lifelong tendency toward service and promote the idea that one person can make a difference. The Joe Mertz Center has been listed as an exemplary program in the John Templeton Foundation Honor Roll of Character-Building Colleges.

Huntington University is a comprehensive Christian college of the liberal arts offering graduate and undergraduate programs in more than 70 academic concentrations. U.S.News & World Report ranks Huntington among the best colleges in the Midwest. Founded in 1897 by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Huntington University is located on a contemporary, lakeside campus in northeast Indiana. The University is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU).

# # #