On October 4^th, the Center for Community Engaged Learning and MSU Alumni hosted our annual Fall Spartan Day of Service. 401 student volunteers teamed up with our community partners at 13 sites in Greater Lansing and 2 sites in Detroit.

“We rely on groups like [Spartans] who are enthusiastic and want to be a part of the community to be able to reach a high volume of neighbors, which is a huge boon for a staff of eight people,” said Allen Neighborhood Center volunteer and communications manager Ethan Schmitt. Allen Neighborhood Center volunteers distributed flyers about community events and resources, picked up litter around the neighborhood, and worked in the center’s urban garden. “We know that, not only is it going to be a cleaner neighborhood, but also people are going to know more about us and the resources we provide.”

Collectively, Fall Day of Service volunteers served 2,406 hours on a variety of projects, including home repairs for families recovering from disaster and groundskeeping for local parks and natural areas. Volunteers with the MSU Pollinator Gardens refurbished a garden on the banks of the Red Cedar River, promoting biodiversity on campus by adding new plants native to Michigan that support pollinator species.

“I would love to see more of these landscapes on campus, so to get people involved and talk to people about what we’re doing is exciting,” said Beal Botanical Garden arboretum and invasive species coordinator Carolyn Miller. The MSU Pollinator Gardens are a joint project of Beal Botanical Garden, the Office of Sustainability, and the Sustainable Spartans registered student organization.

Based on the hourly value of volunteer time in Michigan calculated by Independent Sector, Day of Service volunteers generated $79,085 of equivalent financial impact in communities served. For organizations like Edgewood Village, a housing non-profit providing access to affordable housing and community programming for low-income households, having volunteers prepare their garden for winter helps families receive ongoing support in many ways.

“It’s like magic watching a group of folks come here and do in a few hours an entire week’s worth of work,” said Edgewood Village garden and nutrition director Cait Schneider. “I get to focus on some of the really impactful projects we’re trying to get done this fall, like building a new children’s sensory garden. Volunteers tangibly increase our ability to provide infrastructure that benefits the kids here.”

Partners for this Day of Service also included After the Storm; Eastside Community Action Center; the Equine Center for Learning; Fenner Nature Center; Potter Park Zoo; South Lansing Urban Gardens; the MSU-Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning, and Innovation; and Rescue Nature Now. Thank you to our community partners for welcoming our students and to our student volunteers for giving their time to make a difference!

Find more photos from this event here.