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The Wright State Guardian
Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 | News worth knowing
Wright State Guardian

We Serve U helps students get involved

WSU’s We Serve U offers students an outlet to get involved in the community. Many students may want to volunteer their time and talent to help others, but don’t know how to get involved or who to talk to.

We Serve U is an organization that makes members of the WSU community aware of these opportunities to get involved on and off campus. On Oct. 5 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., We Serve U will host a volunteer fair in the Student Union Atrium.

“We Serve U Volunteer Fair will feature 33 non-profit organizations,” Joanie Hendricks, co-chair of We Serve U, said. “Students and faculty can learn more about what these organizations do, the opportunities they have for them to get involved and help out. I think they will see that volunteering doesn’t just have to be cleaning and sorting things, it can be much more. At the fair, between all the different organizations that will be there, students can find something that interests them.”

We Serve U started at the end of 2010. They currently have 11 members and last year they collaborated with different organizations and departments on campus, which helped them fulfill their mission.

According to Hendricks and Becky Traxler, also co-chair of the organization, they started the group because they understood that people may have wanted to help in their community but may not have the resources to know how to get involved.

“People can volunteer on their lunch breaks, between classes, after work, etc,” Traxler said. “When we started this group we thought it fit WSU’s vision of service. We took our idea to the president, who also agreed and has been very supportive. The administrative office has greatly helped in publicizing We Serve U.”

Hendricks and Traxler agree that from last year to this year, volunteer membership has grown, connections have been made and they continue to vary the activities the organization is involved in.

Last year they held a fundraiser for Hospice collaborating with the Rec Center, and they worked with the Athletics department to collect donations for Blue Star, which is an organization where mothers send supplies and care packages to soldiers oversees.

They also had a large turnout in December, when they made cards for the children hospitalized at Children’s Medical Center in Dayton, where cards are very important to the children because they receive a card with every meal.

Just before school started they collected school supplies for the students of Westwood Elementary in Dayton, where they received over 100 book bags and other supplies.

For a full list of organizations they are partnered with, go to their website. This year they are working with the Unclassified Staff and Alumni Organization to host Raiders Giving, during Thanksgiving, which will provide meals to people who can’t go home for the holidays.

We Serve U is open to all members of the WSU community. Meetings are not held regularly, but take place more consistently around events such as the Volunteer Fair.  According to Hendricks the biggest challenge with operating this organization is involving students and making that connection.

“We Serve U touches so many lives and helps people,” Hendricks said. “Its impact is that it has put service, which WSU embodies, on the forefront. This upcoming volunteer fair is a great opportunity to get connected and have exposure. Located in the Atrium is a great place students can stop by and check out what’s going on. We were worried we wouldn’t fill up the space, but ended up having to make more space for more organizations that wanted to get involved.”

For more information about this event, and We Serve U, please visit www.wright.edu/weserveu/projects or contact Joanie Hendricks at joanie.hendricks@wright.edu or Becky Traxler at becky.traxler@wright.edu.


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