By Hannah Shirey ’23, staff writer
The LVC community hasn’t stopped serving others, even if the COVID-19 pandemic has caused community service to look different this year.
Since the start of the academic year, students have not been permitted to serve off-campus. Students looking to serve have had to find creative ways to engage in service on campus and virtually.
“It has definitely been more challenging to develop meaningful ways for them to engage,” Jen Liedtka, service and volunteerism coordinator, said. “But some great endeavors have come out of this dilemma, including our weekly Nights of Service and our Alternative Winter Break Service Experiences.”
The Nights of Service Liedtka refers to involves different student organizations taking the lead on coordinating a service initiative each week. The Alternative Winter Break Service Experiences occurred this January. Students worked together to examine poverty and food insecurity at both the local and global levels.
Although the Alternative Winter Break Service Experiences are now over, Liedtka viewed the experience as a success. The Nights of Service are still running and are open to all students. Liedtka hopes to keep initiatives like these in place even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
A community-wide project that was completed this semester was blanket making for the Children’s Resource Center. Members of the LVC community made over 500 blankets for children who have been abused.
Several groups on campus, like the baseball team, the Black Student Union and Gamma Sigma Sigma, have been taking on great initiatives as well. For instance, members of Student Government have been leading virtual leadership lessons with Northwest Elementary School’s student council.
Individual students have also remained engaged with community service despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic gave Fatima Madondo, an international student from Zimbabwe, time to reflect on her future. She realized that right now was the best time to start a nonprofit to help young women in Zimbabwe gain access to education.
“I realized that I do not need to be a millionaire to start this project,” Madondo said. “I need to work with other like-minded people to make my project come true.”
The nonprofit Madondo created has already raised enough money to send one Zimbabwean woman to a trade school. Madondo also organized a book fundraiser to collect books for the Zimbabwean women. She hopes that the books she collected can expose the women to various subjects and content areas.
“For me, it is not enough to just talk about how disadvantaged people are not given a chance to succeed and stop there,” Madondo said. “What is important to me is what I am going to do about it. I will implement a plan to change this, and whether it succeeds or not, at least I helped create that chance.”
Liedtka and Madondo are grateful to still have the opportunity to serve, even if it is not in the typical ways they are accustomed to doing so.
“While I can’t wait for us to get back out in the community, I’m thrilled that we’ve developed some new approaches to service that will allow us to have a still broader reach in the future,” Liedtka said.
Students looking to get involved with community service should visit www.lvc.edu/life-at-lvc/community-service/ to find a list of ways they can get engaged through both hands-on and virtual experiences.