On Saturday, Oct. 21, about 100 students and staff teamed up with local nonprofit agencies to volunteer their services as part of the University of Delaware's Make a Difference Day 2000 activities.

A cooperative venture between the University and the local community, UD Make a Difference Day 2000 was cosponsored by the Office of the Dean of Students and First State Mentor Corps, with support from the City of Newark.

Although national observance of Make a Difference Day was officially observed on Saturday, Oct. 28, UD sponsors chose the earlier date to avoid conflict with this year's Homecoming activities.

Project coordinator and First State Mentor Corps volunteer Wendy L. Lewis, a graduate student in the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy (CHEP), said the volunteers began signing in around 10:30 a.m. at the Trabant University Center.

"Once they were signed in, students signed up to work at specific site locations," Lewis said. "YoUDee also was there to keep everyone entertained, and it was terrific."

Community agencies taking part in the event included Quilts for Comfort, Delaware Food Bank, Girls Inc., Newark Manor, Newark Senior Center, UD Laboratory Preschool, Active Day Center, Homeward Bound (Emmaus House) and Newark Parks and Recreation.

"The agencies were fabulous to work with, and they were very pleased to have us," Lewis said. "I was really pleased with the number of students who expressed interest and actually came out to do a wonderful job for this event."

Many volunteers came from First State Mentor Corps, a cooperative project of three Delaware colleges–including UD, Delaware State University and Delaware Technical and Community College's Owens Campus in Georgetown–to provide mentoring and tutoring of elementary and middle school children in the First State.

Cathy Skelley, Office of the Dean of Students, said that everyone was pleased with the turnout and the way the effort was coordinated between First State Mentor Corps and the participating community agencies.

An evaluation by team leaders of the day's activities will let organizers discover what steps can be taken to keeps things moving in a positive direction.

"The volunteers did a lot of work, and the day was certainly a great success," Skelley said. "The evaluation will help us learn from our experiences and allow us to make next year's event an even greater success."

Community business support for Make A Difference Day included classroom materials from the University Bookstore, T-shirts for participants courtesy of Taylor's Ink Ltd. and post-event pizzas provided by Aramark.

The next project for First State Mentor Corps, cosponsored with the dean of students office, will be working to help New Castle County's Adopt-a-Family Holiday Program.

For more information, call the Office of the Dean of Students at 831-2116. To contact the UD chapter of First State Mentor Corps, call 831-0883.

-Jerry Rhodes