In honor of Make a Difference Day, which is nationally celebrated on Oct. 22, on Saturday, Sept. 10, the Hamilton Association for Volunteering, Outreach and Charity (HAVOC) organized its first student-run outreach project of the semester and academic year.
From 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., approximately 95 student volunteers participated at seven different sites in Clinton and Utica. These sites included the Kirkland Town Park, the Upstate Cerebral Palsy Center (Utica campus), the Stone Presbyterian Church, the Dunham Public Library, The Children’s Museum and the Chenango Canal.
Irena Chen ’25, co-director of the event, detailed the process the team took to prepare for Make a Difference Day. “We usually have 50 sites we contact and less than half get back to us. Then, we have to order t-shirts, food, transportation and send out sign-up sheets for volunteers. All of that may not seem like a lot, but it surprisingly was very stressful because we really didn’t have much time to do all of this. Make a Difference Day is always very early on in the semester when we haven’t even had time to hire new e-board members to fill in the roles of the seniors who graduated,” Chen explained.
Rhyme Zhou ’26, volunteer and leader of the Kirkland Town Park group, detailed her first volunteer experience with HAVOC. “I was kind of nervous at first because I was scared that we were going to get lost in the park, but being a group leader gave me an opportunity to practice my communication skills,” Zhou commented. “When the driver dropped us off in the morning, we were told to find the maintenance building, but we couldn’t get into contact with the site coordinator at the park. Luckily after we wandered back to the entrance someone picked us up with a pickup truck. The ride was definitely one of the highs,” Zhou recounted.
Sean Gebauer ’25, a volunteer at the Chenango Canal site and member of the Hamilton Men’s Lacrosse team, detailed his experience volunteering with his teammates at the site. “This experience was very meaningful to me because I really enjoy being able to give back to the community. In fact, I was especially happy to be assigned to the Chenango Canal because nature is something that I really love and I believe that everyone should have access to it, which we helped grant by cleaning up the trail. I really liked getting my hands dirty and getting a sweat going for a great cause,” Gebauer said. He also took note of how the volunteer experience tightened his bond with his teammates. “It was also really nice to be out there doing this service with my teammates. I felt that this experience of working hard while getting involved in the community tightened our bond as a group and allowed us to have a good time while doing good,” Gebauer said.
Chen further described Make a Difference Day as an opportunity to “encourage students to get off campus and gain a deeper understanding of [their] community” while also “[acting] as a bonding experience for first-year students.” However, she noted the importance of continued volunteering for students who want to make a difference in the community.
Chen remarked that “single-service days like Make a Difference Day have a lot of students participate, but these really aren’t the ones that make a large impact on our volunteer partners. Weekly outreach programs are what our community partners find most valuable, so having more of those programs is really HAVOC’s goal this semester. Students usually like these weekly programs more too because they get to go to the same place regularly and develop relationships with the people there.”
