The Durham community may see a spike in Duke students' volunteering off campus thanks to "community service week," which ended Saturday.
The eight-day long series of service-related events featured such programming as keynote speaker Liz Murray, a Duke-Durham panel, and "three-minute service projects" performed at lunch on the Bryan Center walkway. Organizers were particularly impressed by student involvement, and they credited improved publicity and a greater focus on the quality of events for the increase in participation.
"It was fantastic," said Tori Hogan, co-director of the community service center. "[It was] the best that we've had in the time we've been here, not only with record attendance, but we had a greater level of awareness as a result of the week."
Attendance improved greatly over last year. Between 300 and 400 students participated throughout the week, including 250 who attended Murray's speech. Most other events drew between 15 and 40 students.
Heidi Schumacher, co-director of the community service center said she was "extraordinarily pleased" by the week, especially in comparison to last year's events. She felt the quality remained consistent, but "because of a lack of attendance [last year], we didn't feel that those students who attended benefited, because they were spread too thin."
Schumacher and other organizers made a conscious effort to limit the number of events each day, and to focus on quality as opposed to quantity."
Organizers kicked off the week with a dance marathon Saturday, the keynote speaker Sunday, a Duke-Durham relations panel Tuesday and a Saturday four-on-four basketball tournament to conclude the week.
Additionally, mini-service projects were performed on the BC walkway throughout the week, each lasting three minutes. Volunteers could make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a homeless shelter, decorate pumpkins, or make Halloween decorations for a children's ward.
Elaine Madison, director of the community service center, thought that the Duke-Durham panel was a major highlight. "The panelists brought information and insights to the discussion that helped those in the audience, especially students who live on campus, understand Durham as the dynamic community it is," Madison wrote in an e-mail.
Hogan described the panel as long overdue. "We needed to initiate dialogue, and we got great attendance from people from Duke and Durham," she said.
Hogan herself was most partial to Liz Murray's keynote speech, which described the young woman's journey from being homeless in New York City to attending Harvard University.
"She was very inspirational. The people who came got a lot out of it," Hogan said.
Schumacher said she had received many e-mails from students describing how they had a new outlook on community service in general, thanks to Murray's speech.
Hogan said publicity was crucial to the programming's success and she was very impressed by the work of the community service center's staff in publicizing events throughout the week.
"It just seems like this year we did everything right," Hogan said.
"This is a big year for the community service center."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.