Helping others with disabilaties during college spring break program

Student volunteers from Boston University traveled to 4 different sites around the country during Alternative Spring Break to aid people with disabilities. Volunteers worked with a school that provides special education for children with special needs, assisted an organization that allows children and adults with disabilities to participate in sports competition, and built wheelchair ramps for people with disabilities. A couple of the organizations the students worked with during ASB are Champion Athletes of the Ozarks and Friends of Disabled Adults and Children.

ASB made an impact in:
Pittsburgh, PA
Springfield, MO
Stone Mountain, GA
Nashville, TN

Don't you want to make your college spring break meaningful?

Helping others live on a clean earth during college spring break program

College students helped clean the environment in 7 different communities around the country during Boston University's Alternative Spring Break. The volunteers did a variety of different environmental work including hurricane debris relief, removal of invasive species, seashore cleanup, and habitat restoration.

ASB made an impact on the environment in:
Lucedale, MS
Lake Metroparks, OH
Horse Cave, KY
Harper’s Ferry, WV
Cumberland Island, GA
Hobe Sound, FL
Marathon, FL

It sounds to me like this college spring break is a great way to have fun, work on your tan, AND help others!

Helping others build homes during college spring break program

Boston University's 2009 Alternative Spring Break sent students on 7 different sites around the country to help build affordable housing. Organizations that the students worked with included Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together to provide homes for the elderly, people with disabilities, and low income families.

ASB made an impact in:
Orland, ME
Kincaid, WV
Goshen, IN
Cranks, KY
Ft. Smith, AR
Macon, GA
Omaha, NE

College spring break can be fun and meaningful!

Helping others on April 18th

On Saturday, April 18, 2009, Boston University Community Service Center is coordinating their annual Day of Service.

"I did it last year with my friends," said Ksenia Lanin, CAS '11. "It was a lot of fun."

This event is a day where BU students, faculty, staff and alumni come together to give back to the greater Boston community. Students must register to secure a spot for the full day event, during which lunch will be provided.

I'll be there. Will you?

Helping others eat

This week, donate your meals!

Since 1982, Boston University students have been donating their food for food. "Food for Food" is a program organized by the CSC that allows students to donate two meals from their dining plans. Just by sacrificing those two meals, one student can feed a family of four for two weeks!

In 2002, BU set a record number of student participants, 3,901, for any student fundraiser. That was 7 years ago!! Don't forget to donate this week so we can beat that record.

Helping others through dance

Boston University hosted a Dance Marathon on Saturday, March 29th to raise money for two organizations supporting children and families infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. The Dance Marathon lasted 18 hours! It was full of dancing, great food, awesome prizes, fun theme hours, and fantastic performances by BU student groups.

Altogether, Boston University raised $34,000 for Camp Heartland and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Amazing job, BU!

Helping others see

The Student Volunteers for Optometric Service to Humanity (SVOSH) is an organization that provides eye care to developing nations, bringing graduate students in optometry to people who can neither afford nor obtain such care. SVOSH's latest trip was to Honduras, where one volunteer was surprised by the dreary conditions:

"I don't know that I was really expecting to see little cement homes with no doors and bars over the windows and people actually living in them," said Ashley Scheurer, graduate student at the Illinois College of Optometry.

Scheurer said the trip to Hunduras was sobering, especially when she saw "lines of 300 to 400 people lined up in the hot sun in the dirt" to get their eyes examined.

To volunteer with SVOSH and help others in need, visit their website here.

Helping others is good for your health!

Allan Luks, the former executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of Health, wrote The Healing Power of Doing Good: The Health and Spiritual Benefits of Helping Others.The book, published in 1991, details scientific research that proves that being kind has physical and mental health benefits.

Some surprising findings include:
· Helping others can diminish the effect of minor and serious diseases and disorders .
· Stress-related health problems improve after performing kind acts. Helping reverses feelings of depression, supplies social contact, and decreases feelings of hostility and isolation that can cause stress, overeating, ulcers, etc. A drop in stress may, for some people, decrease the constriction within the lungs that leads to asthma attacks.
· After doing good, a decrease in both the intensity and the awareness of physical pain can occur.
· When a person establishes a relationship of friendship, love, or some sort of positive bonding, he or she feels emotions that can strengthen the immune system.

Being kind is an easy way to improve your health!

Helping others all around town

Clawson, a small town in Michigan, celebrated Random Acts of Kindness Week for the second year in early February. The "small city with a big heart" gave free haircuts for kids and hearing tests for seniors, as well as sponsored clothing drives and letter writing stations for troops abroad. More than 35 businesses handed out free gift cards during the week.

“The goal is to make kindness a way of life, so that we show kindness in our everyday lives,” Clawson Mayor Penny Luebs said.

Even police were looking to commend those who were driving well!
Sounds like my kind of town.