BU Global Days of Service: Volunteer Opportunities for Everyone

Ellee Koss initially became involved with Gilman After School while working as a lacrosse coach for at-risk youth. Many of her young athletes attended the San Francisco after school program where Koss (CAS’73, GRS’77) now helps youngsters with homework, cooking, and other projects, providing them with “another person they can count on,” she says. “It gives them confidence, being known, being loved and being safe, being valued. If you have an hour, go be with some kids.”

There are many opportunities to do just that through BU’s annual Global Days of Service (GDS), a monthlong event sponsored by the BU Alumni Association and the BU Community Service Center. Throughout April, BU students, alums, faculty, and staff can entertain children with cancer, collect clothes, books, and toys for Cradles to Crayons, and help orphaned children with craft projects.

On April 23, GDS volunteers at Gilman After School will do gardening and clean up and paint the program’s office. In past years, Koss says, she was in awe of her fellow BU volunteers for their dedication and enthusiasm. Not only does the event let participants give back, but it’s an opportunity for networking, too, she says. At a previous GDS event, she met Arati Mithal Nagaraj (SED’95), and they are now launching a company. “We have become the closest of friends,” Koss says, “and it all started with BU’s Global Days of Service.”

Now in its eighth year, GDS offers something for everyone. Participants can organize an event, carry out an independent service project, volunteer online, or join the more than 190 projects hosted by the University and members of the BU community. Events across the country and the world include setting up a walk for Haiti in West Hartford, Conn., grooming horses in Lyerly, Ga., teaching dental hygiene to foster children in Beijing, and cleaning up a tourist destination in Tokyo.

Boston-based volunteers will help out at the popular Boutique Day at Belle of the Ball on April 8 when local high school junior and senior girls who could not otherwise attend their prom can choose dresses and accessories. Just outside the city, volunteers in North Andover, Mass., will spend April 29 sorting and packing medical equipment for IMEC America, a nonprofit that provides supplies to developing countries around the globe. In addition, the Andover office of the health technology company Philips has organized a special volunteer session at IMEC for its Terrier employees on April 7.

Farther afield, alums in Bogotá, Colombia, are volunteering with Hands on Bogotá to play bingo, sing songs, and pray with the residents of a nursing home on April 22. In Lebanon, volunteers will spend April 28 with young cancer patients and assist with administrative work at the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon, and in Seoul, South Korea, alums and their families will head to Dream Tree Village orphanage on May 13 to help children with a craft project and enjoy a snack together.

New this year, the BU affinity group BU Young Alumni of Color will host networking service events in Boston and Washington, D.C. On April 18, DC alums are invited to donate personal care items to A Wider Circle, a nonprofit that supports people and families in need, and the next day, Boston alums will collect books for another nonprofit, More Than Words, which empowers children who are homeless, in foster care, or otherwise in need of support by entrusting them to help run a business.

“I’m excited to see our affinity groups coming together and networking, but also excited to give back to organizations they’re passionate about,” says Melissa Stuart, associate director of alumni programs and events, who will be volunteering with Development & Alumni Relations colleagues at the Pine Street Inn, which provides services for homeless men, in Boston on April 12, as well as with the American Red Cross blood drive April 13.

Volunteers can even serve from the comfort of their computers or cell phones by recording birds in the backyard for the National Audubon Society, taking psychological tests to help scientists at Project Implicit understand unconscious biases, or translating illustrated books for children with the Rosetta Project, an online children’s library maintained by volunteers.

And now it’s easier than ever to donate to Goodwill—simply by packing items in an Amazon box (find details here). Terriers who post a photo of their box to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with the hashtag #BUGDS17 will receive a Global Days of Service T-shirt. “We know that not everybody is able to do an online or service project,” so this is another way to give back,” says Stuart. “We’d love to share that generosity with the world and the BU community.”

“The BU impact in the world is strengthened by our alumni coming out under the BU banner to do community service,” says Susan Richardson, executive director of alumni relations. “Community service is one of the strongest traditions alumni have.”

Volunteers can share their service stories on the Global Days of Service website. Students are encouraged to also log their time with the Million Hours Project, with the goal of reaching 1.5 million hours of community service before the end of the University’s $1.5 billion fundraising campaign in 2019. Students have already logged 1,286,273 hours.

“Global Days of Service brings together very interesting people, and it does good work,” Koss says. “It’s fundamentally about making a difference in your community. And you will have fun.”

Last year, more than 1,730 volunteers in 75 cities donated 7,011 hours of community service. Help break that record by tracking your hours, whether you join in a group project, organize your own, or volunteer online. Every minute counts.

Global Days of Service runs throughout April. Learn more, share your volunteer stories, and register here.

Lara Ehrlich can be reached at lehrlich@bu.edu.