Students, faculty and staff gathered Friday at Taylorsville Redwood Campus for Salt Lake Community College’s annual #SLCCserves Day of Service.
Everyone met at the Student Event Center before spreading out and taking part in various service projects across the Salt Lake community. The point of #SLCCserves is not to tackle any specific issues, but about an overall effort to give back to the community that supports SLCC year-round.
In addition to the #SLCCserves Days of Service, the Thayne Center oversees other initiatives like Alternative Breaks and the student food pantry. According to Ja’Shonae Cooks, the Thayne Center’s campus community engagement coordinator, the Day of Service is an event attempting to enrich the culture at SLCC of giving back to the community.
“We’re trying to provide more opportunities for faculty, staff and students to get involved in the community,” says Cooks. “Our goal is to have this event annually for folks to be able to explore and see what options they have for getting involved in our Salt Lake community.”
The big emphasis of #SLCCserves is to embed community service into the culture of SLCC. It’s not about any particular service, but about the idea of giving back to the community any time you can.
SLCC President Deneece G. Huftalin, who spoke at the Student Center during the event, asked everyone about community engagement: “Is it content, or is it a process?”
Huftalin emphasized that it’s not just about what one does in their community, but how they do it.
“I hope that you recognize that this is in some ways part of your schedule as [a member] of Salt Lake Community College,” says Huftalin. “It should be part of your role in whatever you do to engage with the community as a representative of our college.” This resonated as the key tone of the event, and that community engagement is indeed a process rather than just an outcome.
With a variety of services done during the event and a huge stipend created in SLCC’s culture of community engagement, the #SLCCserves Day of Service was a success and will continue to give back next year.
For anyone interested in taking part in #SLCCserves or another community engagement opportunity, contact the Thayne Center and take part in several services they do year-round.
