Freshmen Help Out Community During Annual Service Event

08/22/09

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

SPARTANBURG, SC - More than 400 Spartanburg Methodist College freshmen participated in the 9th annual Freshman Day of Service on Saturday.

Freshmen Day of Service is a community outreach event held each fall during the first weekend freshmen are on campus, in which all freshmen are required to participate. The event is designed to give incoming students an opportunity to learn more about and give back to the Spartanburg community.

The event also assists students in developing leadership skills and generates a greater awareness of the needs within their own communities.

The SMC student ambassadors, the college's orientation leaders, chose "Your Future Presentation" as the theme of this year's event.

"SMC's Freshman Day of Service program is a terrific way to encourage freshmen to break out of their comfortable routines and become responsible citizens in their new community in Spartanburg," say SMC President Dr. Colleen Keith.

"For those few hours that students are volunteering at sites such as Faith Home of Spartanburg, Aldersgate UMC, or the Southeastern Children's Home in Inman, they will get to meet other SMC freshmen while at the same time helping out in a meaningful way in their new community. And, of course, we hope that their involvement in the community doesn't just last for these few hours, but for their entire time at SMC and well into the years ahead of them," she adds.

Led by the ambassadors and faculty and staff members, freshmen will be divided into teams that worked at 18 project sites throughout Spartanburg County, which include:

* Aldersgate United Methodist Church
* Children's Shelter of the Upstate
* Faith Home of Spartanburg
* Fuller Center for Housing
* Girl Scouts' Camp Mary Elizabeth
* Hatcher Garden
* McCracken Junior High School
* Middle Tyger Community Center
* Park Place Assisted Living
* SAFE Homes Rape Crisis Coalition Thrift Store
* Second Presbyterian Soup Kitchen
* South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind
* Southeastern Children's Home
* Spartanburg Area Conservancy
* Spartanburg Interfaith Hospitality Network
* Spartanburg Regional Hospice Home
* Upstate Family Resource Center
* Whitlock Junior High School

SMC Chaplain Candice Sloan, along with Kim Day, SMC's Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development, coordinated the annual event.

""We've learned throughout the years of doing Freshman Day of Service that it is something that our students truly enjoy participating in. They might get a little hot or dirty, but that's all part of what makes it memorable for them. After it's over, they look back and say 'That felt great to be able to do that for someone.' It's just a few hours out of their first weekend on campus, but we hope its impact will open a new desire within each of them to give back more of their time to their community. Plus, it's a great way for them to all bond as a group their first weekend on campus and establish new friendships," says Day.

Spartanburg Methodist College is in its 99th year of providing quality education to students in a Christian environment. More than 90 percent of SMC graduates continue their education at other institutions of higher learning.

For more information, contact Brian Fulkerson, Director of Public Information, at (864) 587-4254.

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