The eleventh installment of Service Raleigh brought together more than 2,000 people and sent them out to 72 partner sites to conduct service projects — numbers that slightly trump last year’s figures of roughly 2,000 volunteers at about 60 sites.
Service Raleigh, an annual student-run service project that the Park Scholars and Student Government founded in 1998, doubled its numbers last year and continued to produce a high turnout Saturday, despite cold and windy conditions, according to Jezzette Rivera, co-chair of Service Raleigh and sophomore in criminology.
“We had a lot of the same partner sites as in the past,” she said. “The only difference really was that we had the event in the Brickyard [this year].”
And while many of the partner sites remained the same as last years’, Rivera said there were several new additions.
“One of the new partner sites we [had] was a food drive with all the Food Lions in the area,” she said. “We were able to donate 1,800 pounds of food to a local food shelter — a Catholic ministry in Raleigh.”
But despite the record number of participating project sites, Rivera said she still hopes for more contributors in the future to accommodate the growing numbers of volunteers.
“We also want to make sure there are enough partner sites for everyone to participate in,” she said. “We want everyone to fully participate in Service Raleigh and feel like they are contributing to the community.”
According to Rivera, Service Raleigh 2008 was a little surprised when more than 500 groups and individuals signed up on the last day of registration.
“My advice for whoever is in charge next year is to have a target number and have the registration at that number,” she said. “We were only anticipating 1,900 students and the last day of registration we had over 500 different individuals and groups sign up.”
Rivera said she was pleased with the growth of the event this year and the dedication of the volunteers and sponsoring sites.
“It went really well, given the rain,” she said. “It was slightly drizzly and [there were rain] showers the day of the event, but everyone went through with their service projects [and] none of the sites were canceled.”
