Newsline  

Hilbert Group’s Community Service to Capture Spirit of MLK Day

Release Date:
January 11, 2010
Contact:
Paula Witherell,
716-926-8792 or 716-472-1830 (cell)

HAMBURG, N.Y. – Nearly 40 faculty, staff and students from Hilbert College will take on various volunteer duties, including serving meals to the needy and cleaning a homeless shelter, on Jan. 18 in commemoration of the Martin Luther King National Day of Service.

“Participating in this college-wide service opportunity embraces the spirit of the King Day of Service and provides a meaningful way of connecting and contributing to our surrounding communities,” said Hilbert President Cynthia Zane, Ed.D. “Community engagement activities like this are also reflective of Hilbert’s Franciscan foundation, which emphasizes the importance of service to our community.”  
 
Dressed in Franciscan Day of Caring t-shirts, Hilbert volunteers will be on-site at St. Vincent de Paul Society of Buffalo and the other volunteer locations from 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Volunteers will assist with stocking displays and assisting customers in the discount store that provides clothing and household items to needy families. They will also serve meals in the dining room and unload and sort donated items in the warehouse.
 
 
Another Hilbert group will be at the Little Portion Friary on Main Street where they will do laundry and cleaning in the Buffalo homeless shelter.
 
Saint Augustine’s Scholar Program on Davidson Avenue in Buffalo will be the third volunteer site. At the middle school for boys, participants will pitch in with cleaning the gymnasium and other areas of the inner-city school.
 
Additional information about Hilbert’s Franciscan Day of Caring is available by contacting Barbara Bonanno, director of campus ministry and mission integration, at 926-8924 or e-mail bonanno@hilbert.edu.
 
 

Hilbert College, located in suburban Hamburg, N.Y., south of Buffalo, is a private four-year college founded in 1957 in the Catholic Franciscan tradition. With nearly 1,100 students, Hilbert is a dynamic Western New York college that offers career-focused majors, including one of the top criminal justice programs in the region, and more than 50 minors and concentrations. Hilbert’s personal approach to learning combines liberal arts with an outstanding professionally-focused education that’s taught by professors who bring a depth of real-world experience to the classroom. The college’s engaging, student-centered campus community offers numerous leadership, internship and service learning opportunities from which students launch successful careers while making positive changes in their communities.