Helping rebuild communities, teaching children and cleaning up the environment are just a few things students from Grand Valley State University do during Make a Difference Day. This year, more than 200 GVSU students participated in community service volunteering Saturday, Oct. 22.

Make a Difference Day is an annual, national day of service in the U.S. where people are encouraged to volunteer in any capacity in their communities for the day. At GVSU, the Community Service Learning Center (CSLC) hosts the event.

“Students can learn about cultures and backgrounds that are different than theirs,” said Rachael Zaborowski, graduate assistant for CSLC. “Also learning how to be an actively engaged citizen and learning about the different organizations in the community is really important.”

Partnering with 14 different community associations, organizations and non-profits in the Greater Grand Rapids and Holland areas, GVSU students woke up bright and early to start their day giving back to the community. GVSU has participated in Make a Difference Day for 15 years.

Students volunteered at community organizations like the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Habitat for Humanity and the GVSU Sustainability Project.

In order to participate as a volunteer, the CSLC holds a pre-registration process online to get a rough estimate of how many students will participate. On the actual day of the event, they also accept walk-in registration.

The day began at 8 a.m. as site leaders gathered to discuss their plans and expectations for the day. Each site leader then met with their volunteers to discuss the agenda and educate them about the site they volunteered at.

During this time, volunteers packed their lunches provided by the university, put on their volunteer T-shirts and learned about the rules, expectations and mission of the day.

After the orientation, volunteers were lead to their service locations by their site leader. All transportation to and from the sites was provided by Dean Transportation.

Site leader Michaela Degrande said Make a Difference Day is an opportunity for students to get connected with the community through avenues they may not have known were available before.

“I think it’s a great day to not only give back to the community,” Degrande said. “But also to take advantage of an opportunity that is laid out for you, you just sign up and go.”

After their service project is completed for the day, the site leaders then lead the group in a reflection to talk about what they experienced and their take-ways from the day.

Students can participate as volunteers alone or with their student organizations to log hours on their service tracker on OrgSync, complete community service requirements or earn credit for LIB 100/201 classes.