MACON — This week, Mercer University kicks off its second annual celebration of community involvement called Mercer Volunteer Days, a campus-wide initiative to encourage students to volunteer with community organizations in Central Georgia. The event begins on Thursday, Oct. 12, with Lights On After School, held from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Tattnall Square Park in Macon, and includes daily volunteer opportunities for Mercer students through Saturday, Oct. 21.
Lights On After School, held in conjunction with the Bibb County After School programs will include fun activities for nearly 400 Bibb County elementary schoolers and their parents, as well as children and parents from the surrounding neighborhood. More than 60 Mercer students will participate in fun activities with the children in a carnival atmosphere. Events will include gak making, piñatas, ball-tosses, art projects, face-painting and a cake walk.
Throughout the nine days, Mercer students, classes and organizations will have an opportunity to assist community organizations in need of volunteers, including Friends of the Library, Goodwill Industries, Power House Youth Center, Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Pleasant Hill Community Garden. The events conclude on Saturday, Oct. 21, with a Habitat for Humanity build in South Bibb County.
Mercer Volunteer Days began last year and succeeded a tradition of Mercer’s orientation for entering students called “Into the Streets,” which sent groups of students across Macon in the middle of August each year. In an effort to expand this initiative to all Mercer students, Volunteer Days was inaugurated in 2005 and more than 300 Mercer students engaged in over 20 service projects across the community last year.
About Mercer University:
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University has 7,300 students; 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies; major campuses in Macon and Atlanta; four regional academic centers across the state; a university press; teaching hospitals in Macon and Savannah; an educational partnership with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta; an engineering research center in Warner Robins; a performing arts center in Macon; and a NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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