Classes Are Off, Community Service Is On For Annual ‘Humanics In Action Day’

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Sept. 12, 2005 – Wielding rakes, paint brushes, wheelbarrows and tutorial equipment, 2,000 Springfield College students, faculty and staff members will tackle more than 100 projects in the community in a day of concentrated service Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For its annual Humanics in Action Day, Springfield College will cancel daytime classes and operate offices with reduced staffing to free college volunteers to work on projects throughout the community, but primarily in neighborhoods surrounding its campus.

College work groups wearing grey and maroon tee shirts will help neighbors with a variety of clean-up/fix-up projects. They will spruce-up playgrounds, provide landscaping at select schools, remove graffiti, conduct educational projects, and perform a variety of indoor and outdoor projects. The college’s volunteers will pitch in for more than 70 schools, shelters, churches, senior citizens’ facilities, city agencies, community organizations, and individual neighbors.

This year, Springfield College will expand a project that has become an annual tradition with residents of Westford Circle. About 100 college volunteers will clean and plant the islands in the center of the road in support of the efforts of Upper Hill Residents Council and neighborhood resident Irma Foster.

According to Springfield College Community Relations Director Dale Allen, “We’re making a concerted effort to provide direct help to the residents of the neighborhood surrounding our campus.” The college’s is accepting requests for college volunteer help at telephone 748-3394.

Following the event, the college will host a cookout for its volunteers, participating neighborhood residents, and members of cooperating community organizations and city departments beginning at 1 p.m. at Blake Track on the campus.

Springfield College initiated Humanics in Action Day in September 1998 as a demonstration of its humanics philosophy that emphasizes education of the whole person in spirit, mind and body for leadership in service to others. The event augments the college’s year-round service programs in which students enhance their classroom learning by performing service projects related to their studies in schools, neighborhood organizations, and city programs. The college has held service days at various times throughout its history. The earliest example on record was in 1918.

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