Second Harvest Food Bank Annual Reward Ceremony

Hi everybody,

Hope you all have enjoyed this busy and eventful quarter! On Wednesday March 2, SVC was invited to Second Harvest Food Bank Annual Reward Ceremony. SVC Director Kim Le and Intern Clarissa Zhang joined this ceremony to celebrate success that Santa Cruz residents had against hunger. Last fall, SVC organized a Meal Plan/Flexi Dollar Drive as well as Brown Bag Drive. Generous students helped us by donating a total of $2315.58 to Second Harvest Food Bank. UCSC donated 50,451 pounds of food, making it one of the top ten participating organizations. As a whole, Santa Cruz County residents raised over 2 million pounds of food this year. We were proud to see the extent that UC Santa Cruz would go to help fight hunger. All of these donations will help feed our neighbors in need!

Great job Slugs!!

For more information about Second Harvest Food Bank, visit The food bank.org

-Clarissa Zhang
SVC Intern

SVC ASB Valentines Day Fundraiser

Hey UCSC!
As you all know, Valentine’s Day has come and gone but the memories created on such a special day will last forever. This Valentine’s Day on campus was particularly extra special this year. The Student Volunteer Center hosted their first Valentine’s Day Candy Gram Extravaganza and Card Decorating fundraiser in the Quarry Plaza on February 10th and 14th! To inquring minds, fundrasing proceeds will be used to buy supplies for our up and coming Alternative Spring Break trip to Tacoma, Washington. We will be graciously hosted by and working for Habit For Humanity, building housing developments for families in need. This was only made possible thanks to all you wonderful folks who came by and supported our cause! For those of you who saw our “Love Hut” or are wondering about it, we sold home made cards made by SVC and our ASB volunteers, 1/2lb bags of decadent chocolates, white tulips and pink and red roses, offered a delivery service, and even offered our own make-your-card workshop. And as an extra special treat, all the left over cards and candies went to the families of the Homeless Services Center downtown. I think it’s safe to say the love this year was felt by the entire community.

If any the events on our blog site interest you and you’d like to become involved, please come visit the SVC office located on the 3rd floor of the Bay Tree Bookstore Building (our desk is behind the receptionist’s desk). We’d be more than happy to answer any questions you may have! You can also shoot us an e-mail at volunteer@ucsc.edu or check us out at our website http://volunteer.ucsc.edu

Thanks again for all your support as always! And remember:
You+Candy+Love= a home for a family in need
-Chris Silva
SVC Intern

Happy New Year from SVC!

Happy New Year! We hope that everyone had a restful winter break and is now ready and enthusiastic to volunteer. Thanks to your help, we ended 2010 on a great note with our annual Brown Bag Food Drive and Giving Tree Program. We collected 68 bags from six UCSC student organizations on the Base of Campus Day for our Brown Bag event that benefited the Second Harvest Food Bank. 79 children from the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center and from the Jesus, Mary, and Joseph Home, benefited from our Giving Tree Program. We received 1,103 donations that included 134 pairs of pants, 123 jackets and sweatshirts, 129 shirts, 254 socks, 51 shoes, 94 undergarments, 34 hats, 13 scarves, 22 gloves, 22 books, 34 miscellaneous toys, 129 toiletries, 20 art supplies, 7 diaper packages, 1 car seat, 17 sports gears, 14 onesies, and 5 baby blankets. Thank you to everyone who participated and made our accomplishments possible! SVC is currently preparing for Alternative Spring Break. You can find more information on ASB and other upcoming volunteer opportunities here.

We are also happy to introduce our new interns:
Brittany Lawrence
Chris Silva
Clarissa Zhang

Have a stress-free quarter!
-Brenda Beltran
SVC Intern

Pie Fundraiser for Jacobs Heart

Thank you to everyone who supported SVC and Jacob’s Heart Children’s Cancer Support Services by buying a slice of pie and donating money during our fundraiser on Monday, November 22nd. For weeks, SVC interns worked on organizing the fundraiser and despite cold weather, students and staff enthusiastically came out to support our fundraiser. With your help, the event was successful and we were able to give to a great cause! Jacob’s Heart provides support to not only children with cancer, but their families as well as they struggle through the hardships of illness. No one should fight cancer alone. This is why Jacobs Heart Foundation provides services like counseling to children with cancer and their families. SVC also thanks Emma Gilman, a representative from Jacob’s Heart who traveled from Watsonville and braced the cold and rainy weather during the fundraiser. Thank you to everyone who was so willing to give and listen to Jacob’s Heart. If you would like learn more about Jacob’s Heart visit www.jacobsheart.org or if you are interested in volunteering for upcoming SVC events please check out the “Calendar of Events” on our website at http://volunteer.ucsc.edu or stop by our office.
Again, thank you all for your support!

Have a great winter break!
-Brenda Beltran
SVC Intern

10th ANNUAL VOLUNTEER FAIR!

Thank you to all the organizations and UCSC students for coming out and participating in SVC’s 10th Annual Volunteer Fair!

The SVC staff and interns worked together to host the Volunteer Fair on October 14th, 2010 in the Quarry Plaza. We had 38 local organizations at the fair to show how UCSC students can help the Santa Cruz community.

We would also like to thank the 60 new Be the Match registrants. Because of you, we have increased the chances to save another person’s life!

As a new intern of SVC this quarter, I had a lot of fun tabling and informing UCSC students about how they can help the community.

We are excited to have received a lot of volunteer interests from many Banana Slugs!

Thank you, everyone, for coming to the Volunteer Fair!

Look forward to our upcoming Brown Bag event!

Until then, happy volunteering!

SVC Intern,
Jenn Kim

New year, new staff, new volunteer opportunities!

We hope you all had a great summer! We are excited to introduce our new staff and interns for this quarter:

Director: Kim Le
Program Manager: Erin Flannery
Office Manager: Amanda Kimball

Interns:
Brenda Beltran
Jennifer Kim
Joana Leonido

You can find more information on our new staff here

We hope you are as eager to get involved as we are! Our 10th Annual Volunteer Fair will take place on October 14th, 12-4pm in the Quarry Plaza by the bookstore. Over 30 organizations will participate in the event, setting up tables to reach out to UCSC students interested in volunteer, internship, and field study opportunities. The National Marrow Donor Program will also be on site to register students during the fair, connecting thousands of patients with a donor who can give them a second chance at life.

Check us out this year!

For more information, go to our website

See you soon!
Kim
SVC Director

SRC 2010

Hey Everyone!

On Wednesday, May 26th, SVC hosted its 10th annual Service Recognition Ceremony. This event recognizes students, staff, and faculty that have completed exemplary community service during their time at UCSC. We annually award individual students, student organizations, Greek organizations, faculty and staff based on an application and letters of recommendation and/or a community member nomination.

This year’s Service Recognition Ceremony honored 40 individuals and one greek for their outstanding service efforts. The event was a huge success, with an inspiring speech from our key note speaker, Vice Chancellor Donna Murphy. Musical guests Stefan Orozco and Juliana Britto Schwartz also performed three amazing songs throughout the event. A number of volunteers showed up to receive their awards while sampling our delicious food spread with bagels, chocolate covered strawberries, and a number of baked goods all donated by local Santa Cruz businesses. The staff and interns did an excellent job in hosting this event, and we would like to give a special thanks to Donna Murphy, Franklin Williams, Barbara Silverthorne, Sheila Rodriguez, Stefan Orozco, and Juliana Schwartz for their meaningful contributions to this event!

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We thank everyone for their support throughout this quarter, and can not believe that this year is finally wrapping up. Keep checking our website to learn more about summer volunteer opportunities!

Best Regards,
Mia Lobaco
SVC intern

Painting at Familia Center

Hi all!

Sunday morning, SVC staff and interns helped out the Familia Center by painting a room used for afterschool homework programs, such as Afternoon Home Work Club (provided for youth in 5th-7th grade) and  Evening Home Work Club (for 8th-10th graders). Big thanks to intern Mia Lobaco for setting up this great volunteer opportunity!
For more information about volunteer opportunities with the Famila Center visit this website.

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In other news, Relay for Life is already this Saturday! SVC is still looking for some volunteers to help set up food, clean up, general staffing for facilitating the event,and participating with our team for the 24-hour walk-a-thon. Sign up for an hour or two anytime between 7 am on the 22^nd Saturday, to 11 AM on Sunday the 23^rd. There will be a lot of fun activities going on, so come and support the America Cancer Society while having some weekend fun!

Also, the end of the year is coming up, and you know what that means: time to donate your leftover food to Second Harvest Food Bank and make a difference before you leave for home! Ask your CA/RA where your collection barrel is located.

The end of spring quarter is rapping up pretty quickly with our volunteer calendar looking more busy than ever, so we thank the volunteers for their continuous support so far, and look forward to even more for these last few weeks!

Best Regards,
Daphne Poblete
SVC intern

Current SVC news

Hello everyone!

SVC has been hard at work in the past couple weeks with our upcoming events–Relay for Life, our Service Recognition Ceremony, and collaboration with Facilities to promote the end of the year food drive with Second Harvest Food Bank. Here is an update on all of these happenings,and we’ll be sure to remind everyone as they get closer!

Relay for Life is less than a month away! The 24 hour walk-a-thon to fight cancer and fundraise for research will take place from 10am on May 22nd to 10am on May 23rd right here on campus at the East Field. Not only will the SVC be participating as a team during the event but we are also coordinating volunteers for it. We need people to join our team and help out! Volunteer duties include general set up, clean up, and staffing and if you would like to help, contact Erin at the SVC to sign up for a time slot. If you are interested in joining our team there is still time! Visit the UCSC Relay Site at relayforlife.org/ucsantacruzca.

The 10th annual Service Recognition Ceremony is also just around the corner! This event to recognize and award UCSC students, staff, and faculty who have shown exemplary service in the Santa Cruz community. We encourage any local organizations or individuals to nominate UCSC volunteers who have dedicated their time to help our local community. Additionally, volunteers are welcome to nominate themselves and all nominations can be done at http://www2.ucsc.edu/svc/svc_awards.php. The deadline to nominate  is May 10th so don’t wait! The ceremony will take place from 5-7pm on May 26th and Vice Chancellor Donna Murphy will be giving an opening speech. We hope to see you there!

Lastly, the SVC is in the beginning stages of collaborating with UCSC Facilities to host an end of the year food drive with Second Harvest Food Bank. The drive will start on June 1st and run until the end of the quarter. Multiple collection barrels will be placed in every college and all UCSC students/staff/faculty are encouraged to donate! If you are interested in helping the SVC with this event, we need volunteers to help promote, promote, promote! We have tons of flyers that will need to go up in all of the colleges and any way to get the word out is appreciated. Let us know if you can lend a hand!

For anymore information on these events feel free to contact the SVC at any time~ volunteer@ucsc.edu or 831.459.3363.

Best regards,

Erin Flannery

Program Manager

Blood Drive 4/8/10

Hello again,

SVC hosted its first blood drive of the year on Thursday 4/8, which proved to be a “screaming success” according to Standford Blood Center representative Mary Jo. The Stanford Blood Center projected 75 productive units of blood, but SVC and all of our wonderful UCSC volunteers delivered with an astounding 123 pints! This far exceeded their expectations and our own, and we want to thank you all for your generous donations, as well as the Stanford Blood Center for their hard work with the unanticipated number of students!

For those of you that donated blood, you will be receiving your voucher for a free pint of Baskin Robbin’s ice cream via mail as promised .

Thanks again, and we’ll see you all at our next event!

-Ali O’Grady

SVC Director

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