STORY BY CORIE LYNN
The spirit of service will take over Hays through the Big Event on April 13.
According to the Student Government Association Community Relations Director Jacki Dougherty, FHSU has participated in this nation-wide event for around nine years.
“The reason that we do this is just to serve our community because it’s a community that fosters because of the university and we really want to give back to them,” she said.
This year, nearly two hundred volunteers are helping the SGA achieve this goal.
The volunteers are made up of Fort Hays students and staff, with each person put onto a team that will take on service projects around the city.
However, the day of service will reach beyond Hays this Saturday. Thirty-four virtual students also agreed to volunteer on that day.
“They’ll be volunteering in their own communities, some of that being in San Antonio, some in Virginia,” said CRD Dougherty, “We even have some who are international students who are participating in this Big Event.”
For the volunteers who will be in Hays, there is a range of projects to which they’ll be assigned. One such project is Options which assists victims of sex trafficking and sexual violence.
“The reason that we’ll be helping them is, while they’re always dealing with these pressing situations, we’d just be organizing and helping out with their day-to-day load that’s been piling up,” Dougherty said.
According to her, other groups of volunteers will organize donations at Jana’s Closet, help on the grounds of Bethesda Place, and clean up the trails at the Sternberg Museum.
“[They are] just little projects that we can help make the day-to-day processes easier for these organizations that always have something going on,” she said.
Dougherty went on to explain that she, the SGA Student Relations and Involvement Committee, and its chair Denise Lastra Blanco had a goal for the Big Event. She explained that they wanted the event to have a campus-wide involvement.
She also went onto say that the Student Government’s purpose is to serve both the students and the community of Hays.
“My job as the Community Relations Director is to bridge those gaps with the community and the campus, so [the Big Event] is a great opportunity to do just that,” said Dougherty.
As the FHSU volunteers go through the city on Saturday, organizing, cleaning, and lending a hand to those in need, CRD Dougherty said she hopes they receive a sense of fulfillment through their work.
“They can look forward to it just being a day that they feel proud to be a Tiger, proud to be in the city of Hays and,” she said, “since it is a part of I Love FHSU Week, to show how much we love FHSU and serving our community that we exist in.”