7/28/99

Week of Caring Planning Underway

Representatives from over a dozen agencies gathered recently at Tusculum College to begin making plans for this year's "Week of Caring," planned for September 10-17.

Last year's kickoff of the community service week, coordinated by the Volunteer Center and Tusculum College, placed hundreds of volunteers in sites across Greeneville and Greene County. The week began with Tusculum College's annual Nettie Fowler McCormick Service Day, a campus-wide commitment to community service. Throughout the ensuing week, groups from other organizations completed community service projects.

This year, Greene County's week of service will follow the same format, with Tusculum College's Nettie Fowler McCormick Service Day providing the kickoff event.

Coordinators of this year's efforts are Mary Fitzpatrick of the Volunteer Center and John Reiff and Joyce Doughty of the Tusculum College Service-Learning Center.

Reiff asked the agency representatives to consider designing projects that might take more than one day, so that volunteer groups from different orgainzations could collaborate during the week on large projects. He also requested that agencies suggest projects that would involve interaction between volunteers and the agencies' clients.

Fitzpatrick introduced Steve Ottinger of Greene County Bank, who shared with the group the experience of volunteering during last year's Week of Caring. "We had a very positive experience," Ottinger reported. "It was a wonderful team building opportunity for our people."

Sam Doak also reported to the group on how agencies might design small but meaningful projects. He gave as an example a project he recently completed with a group of Upward Bound students from Tusculum College to complete a graveyard census at Mount Bethel Cemetery, "It only took a couple of hours, but it was really quite a meaningful project," Doak said.

The meeting concluded with a brainstorming session for "Week of Caring."

By August 1, Tusculum faculty will receive a list of potential service projects for the Nettie McCormick Service Day. By mid-August, Fitzpatrick will circulate a more complete list of projects to potential volunteer groups. Until then, both volunteers and ideas for service projects are being solicited.

Businesses or other organizations are encouraged to contact either Joyce Doughty in the Service-Learning Center at 636-7300 or Mary Fitzpatrick at the Volunteer Center of Greene County at 639-9341.

The Volunteer Center is an agency of the United Way.