Outreach Day Sees Record Turn-Out

“I’m smiling,” Albert Miller, SEAS ’11, said Saturday afternoon, lounging on Low Steps after spending the day volunteering at a nearby park. “I’ve got a happy feeling inside.”

Miller was one of roughly 1,000 participants in this year’s Columbia Community Outreach, an annual, one-day event that sends teams of Columbia students, alumni, and faculty members out to volunteer at non-profit organizations across the city.

“I think it’s one of those things that even if people don’t do anything else all year, they come out for this big event,” said Perri Gerard-Little, CC ’08, who was participating with fellow members of the College Democrats.

Many students attributed their motivation to their personal experience of the privilege often linked to an Ivy League education.

“I’ve been given a lot,” Miller said, “and I should be able to give some of it back.”

Jennifer Hui, SEAS ’10, agreed, adding that she also participated “to show people that there is a good world that they live in, and that there are individuals to help them when they are in need.”

CCO, which aims to encourage lifelong volunteerism in its participants, sent workers to over 90 sites last year and has recently expanded to include alumni clubs around the world.

“Students are doing great things for individuals, families, and the community, and they’re also doing great things for the University,” University President Lee Bollinger said as participants gathered on Low Steps for a bagel breakfast.

In a speech at the event’s opening ceremony, Bollinger characterized the goodwill fostered by programs like CCO as essential to the success of city projects such as Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion.

Other speakers included CCO founder Charlie Leykum, CC ’99; Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp; Teddy Goss, founder of Common Cents and Penny Harvest; and Barnard President Judith Shapiro. Shapiro, who has supported the program since its inception 11 years ago, offered a calculation of the impact a single day can have—if each of 1,000 Columbia affiliates offered a morning, she said, it added up to several thousand man-hours of labor.

Although many participants said they appreciated the tone set by the speeches, several suggested that the ceremony was too long.

“It was like 1,000 or more man-hours while they were up there,” Gerard-Little said.

After returning to campus, participants gathered in front of Low Library for free pizza—an after party that CCO Co-Chair Yitian Liu, CC ’09, said she always finds particularly meaningful.

“You see all these people coming back,” she said, “and they look so happy that they’ve really done something to help their community.”

Returning from hours of gardening, Hui said her work had led to new friendships both within her team and with Columbia’s neighbors.

“The people who were responsible for taking care of the park ... seemed to really appreciate our work,” she said. “They thanked us over and over again.”

“Even though we were only there about two hours,” Liza John, SEAS ’10, said, “we definitely got a lot done.”

mary.kohlmann@columbiaspectator.com