In an effort to strengthen West Virginia communities through volunteer service, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is once again encouraging residents to participate in the ‘Day to Serve’ campaign from Sept. 11 to Oct. 10, 2015.

The Day to Serve supports West Virginia and WVU’s collaborative Million Hour Match campaign, which challenges West Virginia residents to match WVU students in completing one million hours (for a total of two million hours) of service by 2018 to inspire learning and promote civic engagement.

“The Day to Serve is an opportunity for our students to join with our state residents to get out and give back,” said Center for Service and Learning Director Kristi Wood-Turner. “Whether they are cleaning our neighborhoods, providing smoke detectors to residents, repairing our playgrounds or supporting our local animal shelters, they’re making a difference in our beautiful state.”

WVU students are encouraged to participate in the Day to Serve and to log their hours for community service and the Million Hour Match. Any student or student organization that would like to host an event or volunteer for an event can fill out the following form: https://wvucsl.wufoo.com/forms/day-to-serve-wvu-2015/.

The Center for Service and Learning will add their project to iServe and the Governor’s site to ensure their hours are accounted for in both systems.

Jeff Skousen, WVU Land Reclamation Specialist, has been tasked with leading the Day to Serve campaign at WVU.

“The Day to Serve really gives our students an opportunity to unite with the state to give back,” said Skousen. “I know our students will identify ways to serve their communities and participate in this important campaign.”

Gov. Tomblin joins with leadership from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. to motivate citizens to get involved with service projects each year. Last year, 50,000 volunteers with 18,000 youth selflessly donated 180,000 hours across 1,200 events that resulted in the collection of 11,000 bags of garbage, the planting of 3,500 trees and the donation of 800,000 tons of food.

“Doing service helps show our pride in West Virginia and enriches our students college experience, too,” said Wood-Turner. “WVU is happy to be a part of this great annual initiative.”

More information about the Million Hour Match, please visit http://service.wvu.edu/million-hour-match.

For more information about the Day to Serve, please visit http://daytoserve.org.

-WVU-

hr/09/09/15

CONTACT: Jeff Skousen, WVU Land Reclamation Specialist
Jeff.Skousen@mail.wvu.edu; 304-293-2667

CONTACT: Kristi Wood-Turner, Center for Service and Learning
KWood@wvu.edu; 304-293-8343

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