More Than 100 SUNY Plattsburgh Students to Participate in Make a Difference Day

October 15, 2010

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Oct. 15, 2010) – SUNY Plattsburgh students will once again hit the streets of Plattsburgh to take part in the national day of service, Make a Difference Day, Saturday, Oct. 23.For the second year in a row, Project H.E.L.P. will sponsor the community-wide efforts that will benefit organizations and sites throughout the Plattsburgh area. More than 100 SUNY Plattsburgh students are expected to lend a hand on various projects, many of which have been designed especially for Make a Difference Day.

Fifteen students will help at Evergreen Valley Nursing Home, lending a hand with outside clean-up, and another 15 will assist with a special Halloween event for residents and families of Meadowbrook Healthcare. A handful of volunteers are slated to clean the Plattsburgh Interfaith Food Shelf. Chartwells and College Auxiliary Services will also get into the act, joining students as they contribute to the Trinity Community Meal. Other projects for the day include an Adopt-A-Block event, a number of projects at the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts’ Strand Theatre and several tasks at Point Au Roche State Park.

Created by USA WEEKEND Magazine, Make a Difference Day occurs every fourth Saturday of every October and exists as the largest day of helping others in the nation. Project H.E.L.P., the on-campus organization dedicated to getting students involved in volunteerism, sponsored its first Make a Difference Day efforts last year.

In addition to sponsoring local efforts for Make a Difference Day, Project H.E.L.P. organized two other service days last year. These focused on helping local senior citizens at both nursing home facilities and private residences. More than 1,100 hours of service were generated by these events.

Project H.E.L.P. also works on a regular basis to match student interests to volunteer opportunities in the Plattsburgh area. Under these efforts, students logged close to 6,000 volunteer hours over the 2009-2010 academic year alone.

Volunteers for such efforts are a diverse group of students including members of Freshman Experience classes and representatives from SUNY Plattsburgh’s fraternities and sororities as well as the college’s other clubs and organizations. In addition, individual students who are simply interested in making a difference and getting involved in the community make up an important portion of the volunteers.

For more information about Make a Difference Day, sponsored by Project H.E.L.P., call the Project H.E.L.P. Office at 518-564-3648 or contact Ashley Thompson at 518-593-5783 or [email protected].