Northwestern students participated in the second annual NU Gives Back day of service Saturday, taking part in community service events at more than 30 sites throughout Evanston and Chicago.
Although NU freshmen are required to participate in an orientation service day during Wildcat Welcome, known as Serving Communities and Promoting Engagement (SCAPE), NU Gives Back was a voluntary event for which roughly 470 students signed up.
In a brief address to the volunteers on Saturday morning, University President Morton Schapiro praised those present for serving the greater Evanston community. He said the day was an excellent display of the qualities that had helped the students gain admission to NU.
“We talk at highly selective private schools about it being a privilege to attend an institution like NU, and with that privilege comes attendant responsibility,” Schapiro said. “I’m looking to your generation to do a better job in the world than my generation has done.”
One site that drew a large number of NU volunteers was the Young Evanston Artists festival, which took place on the corner of Chicago and Dempster. Volunteers navigated around colorful art exhibits and balloon bouquets to sell raffle tickets to the adults at the festival.
However, the number of student volunteers at the site caused a number of staffing issues. Many of the volunteers were told that they were not needed in any specific capacity, such as working at a silent auction or selling raffle tickets, and were asked instead to sit and watch the musical performances.
“It’s not as successful as it could be if everyone had a job to do,” said SESP freshman Larry Svabek, the team leader for the site. “But it’s also important to be a part of the Evanston community and to interact with these kids and their families.”
Members of NU Gives Back noted that sites like the art festival were difficult to accurately staff, largely because organizers could not give an accurate estimate of how many volunteers they would need before the event actually took place.
According to Communication junior Kira Hooks, president of NU Gives Back, roughly 300 of the 470 people that signed up for the day’s events actually arrived at their site.
SESP sophomore Rebecca Rego, a site coordinator for NU Gives Back, said these numbers might be the result of a new system of reminding volunteers about their commitment.
“Last year we called every participant on Friday night,” Rego said. “This year we changed that to calling just the team leader, but I think we need to change to calling everyone on Thursday night, because people are out on Friday.”
Despite personnel issues, organizers were pleased with how the event turned out, and said it was a significant improvement over last year’s attempt.
“In our second year, things actually went way more smoothly than last year,” Hooks said. “But what we want to do is extend the motive and desire to volunteer beyond just a single day.”
