In the midst of a busy time for academics, the Center for Service and Leadership’s Hands on Tuscaloosa event gave students the opportunity to step back from their classes and engage in the Tuscaloosa community through several service projects.

Passionate student leaders from the Center for Service and Leadership (CSL) greeted students excitedly when they arrived at the Ferguson Center early Saturday morning to choose a service site for Hands on Tuscaloosa.

University of Alabama students had the opportunity to engage in the Tuscaloosa community as part of the CSL’s Hands on Tuscaloosa event. For the annual fall semester day of service, students met at the Ferg at 7:30 a.m., chose service projects to participate in from several options, and took buses to various locations around the community to get involved and give back in different ways.

“This is an open opportunity for students to directly impact their communities through service,” said Ashley Clark, coordinator of outreach of the CSL. “The goals are not just to serve at each respective site but to start thinking about maintaining relationships with these organizations and to build sustainable, mutual, beneficial relationships with our local nonprofits.”

Volunteering sites included the UA Arboretum, Moundville Archaeological Park and Morning Pointe of Tuscaloosa.

“On those sites, there will be a lot of indoor and outdoor maintenance, helping set up for festivals, and working with assisted living residents,” said Clark.

Students found out about Hands on Tuscaloosa in different ways and all had their own reasons for choosing to spend their morning volunteering throughout the local community. Raven Arnold, a freshman majoring in political science, found out about the opportunity and signed up through the CSL’s Instagram page, @volunteerbama.

“I like doing community service, and I did it all throughout high school, so I just wanted to give back in Tuscaloosa,” said Arnold.

Sorina Gantt, a freshman majoring in biology, said that she was looking forward to Hands on Tuscaloosa because it would enable her to give back to the community, meet new people, and spread kindness.

“I found out about Hands on Tuscaloosa through my Bama Year One group, [which is] a semester-long volunteer group, and we work with the CSL,” Gantt said. 

Student leaders from the CSL welcomed students when they arrived at the Ferg, representing different locations where service would take place for Hands on Tuscaloosa and getting students excited to sign up for their respective projects. Marc Tuthill, a junior majoring in computer science and computer engineering, was one of the leaders at the Morning Pointe of Tuscaloosa location for Hands on Tuscaloosa.

“Today was our fall Hands on Tuscaloosa,” Tuthill said. “We do one Hands on Tuscaloosa in the fall and one in the spring. We were at six different sites today all across the community of Tuscaloosa. Specifically, we were at Morning Pointe, the retirement community and nursing home, just trying to help the residents out there with whatever they need, whether it be organization, painting, that sort of thing, and just kind of enjoying the day.”

Tuthill described the event as a success. 

“We had a really good turnout,” Tuthill said.  “All of our sites filled up. We had people that wanted to go everywhere ‑ it wasn’t just kind of everybody wanted to stay inside or go out.”

Despite the heat, students were excited to volunteer at all of the locations that were part of this semester’s Hands on Tuscaloosa event.

“We actually had people at the Arboretum today, which is something that we’ve kind of struggled at times to get people interested in going to, just being out in the heat, pulling weeds and that sort of thing,” Tuthill said.  “So it was really good to see people interested in all sorts of service, with just whatever they were passionate about.”

The CSL will host a spring semester service day in the Tuscaloosa community on January 20, 2020, for MLK Day.