To kick off a year of service learning, Kohl Hall’s Chapman Learning Community completed nearly two hours of custodial work at a local elementary school.
More than 200 freshmen students and 12 sophomore leaders were shuttled to Kenwood Elementary School Wednesday to spread mulch, rake leaves, wash windows and paint playground equipment under the supervision of Kenwood head custodian Rod Canterbury.
The event was Chapman’s yearly all-community project and was the largest project Canterbury had seen in his seven years at Kenwood, he said.
“It’s really exciting because this helps us tremendously,” he said. “Money is tight, and after all our budget cuts, I would end up doing 90 percent of this work myself. It takes me a week and a half just to do the windows, but with this many people, they have it coordinated to a science and people are in all divisions willing to do their jobs.”
The large-scale project exceeded Canterbury’s expectations and will undoubtedly have a large impact on the surrounding community, he said.
“I know how it is with college students because I have four of my own,” he said. “Sometimes, the motivation just isn’t there — but that wasn’t the case here. To see such motivation is such a nice thing, and when people drive by Kenwood, they will be able to see the changes.”
Madeline Duntley, Chapman director, said she pushed for this fall volunteer project to foster community among Kohl residents and Kenwood, which will become Chapman’s newest community partner in the spring.
“In the spring, we will be participating in a recess program where we teach structured, educational games with moral content,” Duntley said. “Chapman Learning Community focuses on service learning in its curriculum and every first year student is enrolled in one of 10 different service learning programs offered each semester.”
Duntley said she hopes the Kenwood project will be an eye-opener and will prepare new students who have made a commitment to routine service projects by choosing to participate in Chapman.
“I really think this was a good project to show that not everything at a school gets done automatically, and it must be split into smaller, more manageable tasks,” she said. “A lot of faculty and people at BGSU have children at [Kenwood], so it’s also a good way to connect the community with the University.”
To contribute to the collaborative project, freshman Brooke Nicholson gave Kenwood’s playground tables a fresh coat of spray paint. Nicholson is a member of the Art Appreciation at Family House service learning course, a group that will work on similar visual projects often, she said.
“I really think the school will be thankful that we’re doing this,” she said. “Hopefully it’s a really good reaction and they’ll like what we did.”
Besides encountering an occasional spider underneath a table, Nicholson said she didn’t have any trouble using spray paint for the first time.
“It was an awesome experience,” she said. “Originally we didn’t know what we were going to be doing here and we were curious, but once we found out, we were really excited. It was fun and a great way to serve the community.”
Jordan Clemm, Nicholson’s sophomore leader for the program, said participating in the Kenwood project was one of his most interactive volunteer experiences since joining Chapman as a freshman.
“I think with this type of project, everyone can tell that they’re really helping and they’re happy about it,” he said. “They can tell we’re doing good here, so they laugh and have a good time. It’s a really good feeling.”
