Day of Service Volunteers Lead Outreach Across New York City
Participants of the College-wide event contributed to numerous community service projects in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens on April 29.
Nearly a dozen student groups from across campus gave back to the greater New York City community during this year’s Mission Month Day of Service, an annual tradition at Manhattan College.
In its second year, the event on April 29 included 120 volunteers who traveled to community partner organizations throughout the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens to assist in service projects at organizations including Serviam Gardens - Fordham-Bedford Community Services, Brilla Academy College Prep, Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, and Hunger Helpers in Claremont, an initiative from the Food Bank for New York City. Last year, 98 volunteers participated in the Day of Service.
Together as an institution, the Lasallian Outreach Collaborative (LOCo), Lasallian Collegians, Economics and Finance Society, Manhattan College Singers, Players, SWE: Society of Women Engineers, and other student organizations embodied the institution’s Lasallian heritage, which instructs its community members to lead and serve the areas in which they live.
Their service involvements included but were not limited to:
- park clean-ups
- food distribution
- gardening
- residual disaster relief in Canarsie, Brooklyn and the Far Rockaway section of Queens, which were devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012
In the future, the goal of the Day of Service is to engage faculty, staff, and alumni in order to extend its reach to the entire College community. For the past two years, the event has been held during Mission Month, the time of year Manhattan reflects on the teachings of Saint John Baptist de La Salle, our founder, by highlighting the good works happening on campus and in the local community.