GPP - Community Service

The service committee was formed by Catherine Kolf in Fall 2006 in an effort to allow graduate students the opportunity to give back to the community. For ideas on future service projects contact GSCservice@od.nih.gov .

Some highlights of our community service endeavours over the past few years:

In 2008 we have volunteered at Manna Food three times, packing boxes for needy families and unpacking food donations from the Stuff-A-Bus food drive.

We began holding Graduate Student Blood Drives in March 2008 and they have been a huge success! Thank you to the generous students and GPP staff that donate their blood to the NIH patient community.

In September 2008 we cleaned up trash and debris from the Sligo Creek watershed in Silver Spring, Maryland, as part of National Public Lands Day.

December 2007, we helped pack food boxes at the Manna Food Center. Put enough scientists in a room together and things get done quickly. We had such a great turnout of volunteers that we finished packing boxes in record time!

September 2007, we participated in a National Parks Cleanup Day event at Kenilworth Gardens in Anacostia / Southeast D.C.

In December of 2006, for the first service project grad students of NIH teamed up with the young adults at St. John's to prepare and serve a family-style meal to the residents of the Children's Inn on the NIH campus. The event was a success!!

- A wonderful long-term volunteer opportunity is through the Youth Enrichment Program of Transitional Housing Corporation. THC is a D.C. non-profit organization that helps families with children move from homelessness to permanent housing and lives of independence and dignity. The children of these families meet with volunteers and the program leader, Maxine Harris, every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night from 6:30-8pm. The group goes to the park or to a local church facility to do arts and crafts, to read, or to play games. As you can imagine, these kids have a lot of instability in their lives so the opportunity to spend a block of time with adults who are a good influence is extremely valuable to them. The group meets at their building in the Columbia Heights neighborhood – Maxine will pick up volunteers from the Petworth/Georgia Ave Metro (green/yellow lines), or we could take the bus, or drive and park nearby. Some specific opportunities include Reading Partners (3rd week of the month) and Garden Club (faltering right now, but would love a volunteer to keep it going!). Maybe we could even introduce a science activity!

If you are interested in getting involved with THC, email me (Kim). We can go one night as a group to find the location, meet Maxine and some of the kids, and see what this opportunity would be like. They are not asking for big time commitments – they'd be happy to have volunteers join them for one weeknight, once or twice per month. Depending on grad student interest, maybe we could go together or split into a couple small groups to go on a recurring or rotating basis. You can read more about THC at www.thcdc.org

- A potential volunteer event: Prepare a meal for the children and families at Children's Inn at NIH. This would require a little fundraising, shopping, and food prep, then serving our meal on a Sunday evening at the Children's Inn (a residential facility on NIH campus for young Clinical Center patients and their families). We've done this twice before and would love to sign up again, but need some additional help in planning and carrying it out. Let Cathy or Kim know if you would like to be involved, and how you could help (fundraising ideas? meal ideas? a Sam's Club card? just want to help cook or serve?).