Student Volunteer Recognition Dinner Wednesday
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO –University of Maine students who volunteer to mentor area school children will be recognized for their altruism on Wednesday, March 28. For information about news coverage possibilities, please call Lyn Dexter at 581-1349.
UMaine alumni Russell and Barbara Bodwell of Orono plan to host a dinner at the University’s Heritage House to thank the 50 or so students who participate in the Black Bear Mentors program, one of a number of volunteer projects they support on campus.
“We just wanted to do something special for them. They’re doing something great,” said Russell Bodwell, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1946 and 1947. He and Barbara, who graduated in 1945, have donated generously to their alma mater over the years, establishing scholarships and funding building projects, among other things.
Through the mentoring program, each student volunteer is matched with a pupil from Helen Dunn School in Greenbush, Old Town Elementary School, Indian Island School or Viola Rand School in Bradley. They spend time together one afternoon a week at school, working on academics and crafts projects and playing board games and basketball.
Everyone benefits. Students enjoy spending time with young children and gain valuable experience if they decide to go into teaching, social work, or child care. Meanwhile, the children get an opportunity to participate in after-school activities and to establish a bond with an older student. In addition, the UMaine students may help to raise the children’s aspirations and motivate them to attend college.
Established four years ago by UMaine and the River Coalition — a group of residents from Alton, Bradley, Greenbush, Milford and Old Town who foster and support strong, caring communities — the after-school mentoring program is one of a number of projects coordinated through UMaine’s volunteer center which is funded in part by the Bodwells and was dedicated to Barbara Bodwell in 2005.
“I honestly don’t know how we would function without the Bodwells. We would not be thriving the way we are,” said Mary Skaggs, director of the Barbara Higgins Bodwell Class of ’45 Center for Service and Volunteerism, located in the Memorial Union.
The center works with the surrounding community to create volunteer opportunities for UMaine students who gain immense personal satisfaction by helping to improve the lives of area residents, she said. Students have arranged blood drives, organized activities for Special Olympics and the Salvation Army, worked at food pantries, cleaned trails at Acadia National Park and visited with senior citizens, among many other things.
“The program we get the most volunteers for is the Black Bear Mentors,” Skaggs said.
Since the mentoring project was created, more than 200 University students have established relationships with 150 area children.
When UMaine students volunteer in the community, they enhance the reputation and visibility of the University, according to Bodwell. He said he hopes the service opportunities they receive will motivate them to become lifelong volunteers.
Volunteering has played a major role in his life and in that of his wife, he said. Over the years they have lead church groups, served on school committees and parent-teacher organizations and raised money for the Salvation Army.
By helping to ensure that UMaine provides volunteer opportunities, he said he hopes students will “get in the habit of assisting others and recognize the rewards that come from such activities.
“It gives you a lot of satisfaction,” he said.