|
Several thousand students, faculty, staff, friends, alumni and family turned out Tuesday evening to sign up for various volunteer projects across the area as part of VT-ENGAGE program at Virginia Tech’s main campus in Blacksburg.
In addition to signing up on Virginia Tech’s main campus, people could sign up and volunteer at Tech’s ten other centers across the commonwealth. VT-ENGAGE is the university’s new volunteerism initiative to honor the victims of April 16, 2007 and reaffirm its commitment to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve). “The 32 people we lost on April 16, if you look at their biographies, you will notice they were passionate about serving others,” said Renee Cloyd of Blacksburg as she spoke from the drillfield podium. Cloyd lost her daughter, Austin Michelle Cloyd, in the April 16 tragedy. “Service from the heart will lead you to be a better person in what do you in life. VT-ENGAGE is to persuade students, faculty and staff to volunteer 10 hours to one of 75-plus civic groups on hand. The goal is to obtain 300,000 hours of volunteer time, with an ultimate goal of 600,000 hours by May. As of late Wednesday evening, 46, 916 hours have been volunteered thus far. Some of the area civic groups on hand Tuesday included the Floyd County Humane Society; the Christiansburg Lion Club; American Cancer Society; The United Way of Montgomery, Floyd and Radford; Big Brother and Big Sisters; Giles County Historical Society and Special Olympics to name just a few.“I want to be able to give something back to the community,” said Amy Mason, a Tech student from Northern Virginia. “Ten hours is nothing if you really think about it.” Photos: (Top left) Students sign up to volunteer time with the American Cancer Society. (Right) This lady signs up via computer at Tuesday’s event. (Bottom left) The Floyd County Humane Society was just one of the many organizations seeking volunteers. (Photos by David Grimes)
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
