Stanley Park will host Volunteer Night at 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2 at Beveridge Pavilion. The evening will celebrate volunteerism in the community with a performance by the Bristol Chamber Orchestra. Among the invitees are Westfield State College employees, who have served the community through the college’s various programs that encourage volunteerism.
“Civic engagement is central to the mission of Westfield State College and is embedded in every aspect of its identity,” said Evan S. Dobelle, college president, who has made community service one of his major priorities for the campus. “So the college community is proud to be among those recognized for volunteerism.”
Volunteerism and community service also are encouraged in many ways on campus. Student community service projects are organized by such groups as the Student Government Association, Circle K, the student National Education Association chapter, the Third World Organization, and others. The First Year Experience program and many individual classes also include service-learning projects as part of the curriculum.
Employee programs include the SERV (State Employees Responding as Volunteers) program, an employee benefit available as a result of Gov. Deval Patrick’s executive order 479. It provides an opportunity for employees to give back to their communities by volunteering at approved non-profit organizations.
“SERV is a unique example of how Westfield State faculty and staff uphold the tradition of service the college was founded on in 1838,” said Kenneth Magarian, director of special programs and community service.
“SERV assists Westfield State to continue to enhance the important premise of community between the institution and the city of Westfield,” Magarian said. “The volunteer program also reminds all members of the college community how important social responsibility and citizenship is, whether being taught in the classroom, or being implemented in the neighborhoods.”
Through SERV, other campus programs or their own initiatives, Westfield State employees have volunteered at many organizations in the Westfield community, including the American Red Cross, Cancer House of Hope, Carson Center for Human Services, Massachusetts Medical Reserve Corps.
In addition, there are college/community partnerships that also facilitate community service, such s the Westfield Professional Development School Network and the Center for Teacher Education and Research.
College volunteers also have had a special relationship with Stanley Park over the years. They have conducted seminars and worked on nature projects for the parks.
They include members of the biology faculty, such as David Doe, David Lovejoy, and Tim Parshall, as well as Carsten Braun, professor of geography and regional planning and Arthur O’Leary III, security officer at Westfield State. All are members of the Nature and Wildlife Sanctuary at Stanley Park.
O’Leary recently began setting up metal trail markers in the park, and during the last few weeks of March 2009, he marked with surveyors tape the trails in the Wildlife Sanctuary, as well as three miles of marked trails. Currently, he is coordinating the production of permanent colored trail markings to supervise an eagle scout project in the sanctuary.
Lovejoy conducts three or four field trips every year in the park’s Nature Workshop Series. The Nature Workshop Series is a collaborative effort between Stanley Park, Westfield State College, and the Greater Westfield Community. Workshops are conducted in the 180-acre Wildlife Sanctuary at Stanley Park, and are led by Westfield State faculty O’Leary and Lovejoy, as well as Westfield State alumnus Janice Zepko.
For more information on volunteer night, contact Patricia Burden, director of development at Stanley Park, at 413-572-2900. For more information on SERV at Westfield State, contact Ken Magarian at 413-572-5406.
| 
Home