Oct. 14, 2010

CyServe

ISU students stained the playground structure at Roosevelt Elementary School during the first CyServe in 2008. Submitted photo.

Oct. 16: It's CyServe

More than 270 volunteers -- most of them Iowa State students -- will spend part of their Saturday helping out one of six local organizations during the Student Activities Center's third annual CyServe day. Volunteers will assist on two Habitat for Humanity projects, repair lingering flood damage and clean at Ames' shelter for domestic abuse victims, and help with weeding and landscaping at the state forest nursery. Others will help with registration at Lutheran Services of Iowa's Blue Sky Days fun run, set up and take down the FACES of Ames diversity festival, or sew dresses from pillowcases for African orphans, an ongoing effort at the Memorial Union Workspace.

After recruiting 60 and 110 volunteers for the first two CyServe days, the goal was to recruit 120 students this year. The intent of CyServe, said graduate student Amanda Martin, who serves as an adviser to the undergraduate team, is to focus on the "community" aspect of community service -- "to get students off campus and into Ames, where they can interact with others and see what needs are out there."