The Center for Community Engagement

News & Announcements

 

Upcoming Events:  April is National Service Month with lots of opportunites to get involved.  Campus Clean-up Day, Car Wash to Benefit Veterans, Animal Shelter Outing, Homeless Shelter Support, Earth Day Clean-up.  There's lots going on.  Check the calendar for more details and sign up on-line. Sign up / Check the calendar. 

 

Community Services Club Supports Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless:  Under the leadership of student, Alicia Pomeroy, the Community Services Club has arranged two outings to prepare and serve meals to the homeless in Albany.  Here's what one student volunteer had to say after the first visit: "I had a wonderful time.  It was an impressively nice shelter and the people were very friendly.  One man even told us how he became homeless and ended up in the shelter.  I hope we get a chance to go again!" 

 

Campus to Host Diabetes Walkathon: The Community Services Club, in partnership with the Office of Events & Conferences and the Creating Healthy Places Grant, will be sponsoring a walkathon at the Fieldhouse on Saturday, October 19th to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. Volunteers are needed to serve on the planning committee and on the day of the event to help with logistics. If you are interested in getting involved now, or in the fall when classes resume, please sign up through the Center for Community Engagement.

 

SUNY RA's Embrace Community Engagement:  The Center for Community Engagement would like to recognize the efforts of our hard-working, dedicated RA's, who stepped forward to organize community engagement activities.  Their projects showed real creativity and covered a broad range of needs including support for veterans,  breast cancer research,  children's hospitals, food for the hungry, supplies for the animal shelter, holiday gift giving, and a campus cleanup.  Great job everyone!  Keep up the good work.

Special Olympics:  Hat's off to the following students and staff member for volunteering at the New York Special Olympic Winter Games, held in Rochester on February 22nd & 23rd. The Team from SUNY Cobleskill pitched in where needed to cheer athletes, serve meals, assist with the medal ceremony and tear down. Their enthusiasm, dedication and professionalism was truly commendable, as was the ease with which they engaged the athletes. Lasting impressions were created on both sides. In the words of one SUNY student, " We did have a fun time, and we met some pretty cool people along the way. I would love doing something like this again." Thanks, Sarah March, Dylan Mendelsohn, Noel Valentin, Corey Luchetta, Koren Gravell (staff), Kathryn Prada, Mackenah Simmons and Alicia Pomeroy. You really made SUNY Cobleskill shine!

Save the Cats:  Thanks to the campus community, over  175 lbs of food, 200 lbs of litter and $83 were donated to the Animal Shelter to help feed the 100 cats rescued from an area hoarder. 

Soup Kitchen Support:   Members of the community services club and other student volunteers completed served over 100 meals and delivered 200 PB&J sandwhiches to the Albany City Mission, one of four kitches supported by our campus community.  

SUNY Cobleskill Honors Dr. King:Thanks EOP Director Derwin Bennett for leading the effort to honor Dr. King with an amazing multi-media retrospective chronicling the life and achievements of this civil rights leader. The scope and detail of the displays compelled many to stop and reflect on this unparalleled period of American history and its timeless message of hope, equality, and service.  Thanks also to Director Bennett for assembling a team of faculty and staff to serve meals in the dining halls and to the 27 student volunteers who signed up for the upcoming blood drive, soup kitchen outing and animal shelter clean-up.  The semester is off to a great start! 

Center for Community Engagement Results for Fall 2012.  The campus community really stepped forward last fall to embrace the Center's mission.  Forty-five events were completed involving 845 students and 102 faculty/staff members who completed 2,839 hours of service.  In addition, $6,504 was donated to various agencies/causes and 2,739 lbs. of food was collected for area food pantries.  Thanks to all who helped make a difference.

SUNY Cobleskill's "Feed the Need Campaign" Exceeds its Goal! SUNY Cobleskill's campus wide food drive generated over 2,700 lbs of food for area food pantries, exceeding the goal of 2,000 lbs.  Participation was widespread with contributions from students, faculty, staff and CAS.  Donations were distributed after the new year to help restock depleted supplies.  Thanks, everyone.  You really helped SUNY shine!

Hurricane Sandy Relief:  Under the leadership of student Pierce Randall, Professor Sheila Carey, teams of student, faculty and staff volunteers spent three weekends providing relief to Hurricane Sandy victims. In addition, a trailer load of supplies donated by our campus community was delivered.  Travel expenses were covered by a grant from Student Government and the volunteers utilized the Green Team Trailer which allowed them to arrive fully equipped for clean-up projects.    Truly a campus wide effort. Many thanks to all who contributed.

 

The Center for Community Engagement is administered by Director Brian Kaiser, who is supported by student assistants and an advisory board consisting of faculty, staff, and community representatives.

Contact the Center for Community Engagement at 518-255-5303.