Findlay, Ohio, Aug. 15, 2003 — The University of Findlay will host its annual New Student Orientation Service Project on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2003.

Last year’s inaugural service event promoted the importance of volunteerism and service and was well received by the community. This year, more than 750 members of the University community, including more than 700 first-year students, are scheduled to volunteer in the Findlay community to provide hands-on help to more than 40 non-profit, civic and government organizations.

Led by first-year seminar instructors, orientation leaders and faculty and staff volunteers, first-year students will perform three hours of service during the orientation weekend before their first day of classes at The University of Findlay.

Projects include: staffing the Flag City Balloon Festival; helping Campfire USA run the Findlay Commons Youth Carnival; visiting with Birchaven Retirement Village and Judson Palmer Home residents; performing general clean-up and maintenance projects at several local agencies, including the YMCA, Boy Scouts, Hancock County Agency on Aging and several local churches. Many seminars will be doing service projects that relate directly to their class topics, including a computer seminar that will help the City Mission begin to redesign its Web page, equestrian and pre-vet seminars that will work at the Humane Society, and an environmental seminar that will participate in a local river clean up.

“We tried to match service projects with parallel seminar topics as much as possible,” said Diana Montague, director of The University of Findlay’s First-Year Seminar Program. “We want students to see the connection between classroom learning and service needs within the community.”

This service initiative is designed to introduce students to different aspects of the Findlay community as well as introduce community organizations to new UF students. One of the goals of the service initiative is to provide the students with a model for future pursuit of service as they embark on their collegiate careers at The University of Findlay. As students and faculty help build the community around the University, they will also get to know each other better before the school year begins.

Wayne Sneath, director of the University’s Campus Compact Center for Service & Learning, said, “At The University of Findlay we are striving to make service learning and community service an integral part of the lives of students, faculty and staff. Our first-year students are poised to make a big impact on the Findlay community, and this is one step in the direction of helping them to become effective citizen leaders engaged in their community.”

The University of Findlay is a member of the Ohio Campus Compact, a statewide chapter of a national organization that promotes community service and civic engagement among college communities.