GIVE Center celebrates after decade of kindness

     One of the school’s busiest programs, The GIVE Center, started its semester long celebration of its 10th anniversary with a kick-off on Feb. 6, 2007.
     The “10-10-10 Deal” was kick-off’s theme and students, faculty and staff are encouraged to volunteer 10 hours and donate 10 dollars in 10 weeks. All entries will be eligible to win $100, half of which can go to any charity of the winner’s choice.
     Kendall Stiles, director of GIVE Center, is one of its original founding members. She co-founded it with then-student Kate Van Cantfort, in efforts of bringing community service programs to the university and have an organized place for students to seek help should they want to start their own. A decade later, the GIVE Center is the mother-ship for many non-profit organizations here at GCSU, inspiring students to give back to the community.
     “It’s real interesting and rewarding to see what the GIVE Center has accomplished for the past 10 years,” Stiles said. “We started so small, and now we have all these organizations under our umbrella.”
    To celebrate the anniversary, the GIVE Center will be hosting several big community service events that will include Relay for Life, Cheers for Volunteers and “The Philanthropist”, a contest testing students’ leadership skills through challenges. The contest is modeled after the popular reality TV show, “The Apprentice”.  Other events are also planned and will be announced at a later date.
     Denise Chambers, a sophomore art and community health major, is among the many participants of the GIVE Center’s anniversary events.
     “It’s a great way to commemorate this event since the GIVE Center has helped so many students,” Chambers said. “We are also encouraging students to turn in their hours so that the GIVE Center can have it for the records.”
     The kick-off would hopefully inspire community servants to turn in their hours, which many forget to do.
     “The hours are every important because it shows what we have done,” Stiles said. “The more we have this, the better are our chances at getting funds which helps a lot of organizations within the GIVE Center for any programs that students have in mind.”
     The kick-off invited students to pledge in community service hours and money. A drawing on April 17 will determine the winner.
     “Hopefully, the students will realize how important and how easy it is to accomplish 10 hours of service in 10 weeks,” Chambers said. “Many of them do it already, they just don’t realize it.”
     Paul Sedor II, GCSU alumni and assistant director of the GIVE Center, is ecstatic about the anniversary.
     “It’s a great way to commemorate the accomplishments of the past decade,” Sedor said. “And it gets me excited to see what we can do for the next 10 years.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 16 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry