Page Two

Volunteer SpotlightWill Thomas

Page Four

Calendar of VSLC Upcoming Events

Page Three

The Pirate Tutoring CenterT.R.I.P.S. Returns to Greenville

A P i rat e ’s Gu i d e t o

ServiceEast Carolina University.

Tomorrow starts here.

A publication of the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center

The Volunteer and Service-Learning Center hosts events and programs each year with the help of dozens of student leaders who recruit blood donors, cook meals, organize more than 100 Pen Friends, and lead reflections at large, one-time service events. We’re recruiting next year’s leaders right now, and we need you! VSLC leadership positions are a great way to build your resume, improve your communication skills, and gain awareness of community and social issues. Contact the VSLC today for more information.

Open positions include, but are not limited to:

Campus Kitchen Leadership Team (CKLT)CKLT members recruit volunteers for the Campus Kitchen at ECU, and lead cooking and delivery shifts.

Peer CounselorsPeer Counselors help with the day-to-day operations of the VSLC and large, one-time service events like the MLK Day Challenge and the Million Meal Event.

T.R.I.P.S. LeadersT.R.I.P.S. leaders plan and implement fall and spring break service trips.

Million Meal Event Leaders (MMEL)MMEL’s keep volunteers at the Million Meal event on task to reach our goal of packaging 200,000 meals.

Leadership Positions in the VSLC

Fairytale Boutique Dress DriveDo you have a prom or bridesmaid gown hanging in your closet? Maybe you have not one gown, but several that have been gathering dust and taking up valuable space for a year or more? This is the case for many women—we keep formal gowns in the hope that we might wear them again. But we sometimes keep them for so long that they go out of style, or “shrink.” The Fairytale Boutique can help you clean our your closet and give those gowns renewed life!

The Fairytale Boutique collects new and gently used prom and formal gowns from 2005 to the present, and gives them away free-of-charge to young women in eastern North Carolina who couldn’t otherwise afford to attend prom. The VSLC is currently collecting gowns for the 2011 Fairytale Boutique. We need more than 250 gowns in all colors, shapes and sizes. So ladies, pull out those garment bags (or maybe the ball of taffeta tucked not so carefully into a drawer) and drop it off in the Old Cafeteria Complex. Your donation is tax-deductible, and could make a lucky young woman feel like Cinderella for one magical night.

The Fairytale Boutique also collects new and gently used dress shoes, jewelry, and unopened make-up. The dress drive will continue through fall 2010.

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“We can’t do much about the length of

our lives, but we can do

plenty about its width and depth.”

--Evan Esar

A Pirate’s Guide to Service Page 2

Will Thomas is a sophomore political science major. Will currently serves as the ECU account manager for the American Red Cross, voluntarily supporting blood drives on campus. He hopes to attend the University of North Carolina Law School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Why do you volunteer?Volunteering is something that I always thought was important. Whether it is working with a nonprofit or simply giving my time to a local food bank, I always have thought it important to give back to a community that has given me so much.

Spotlight on Will Thomas

What do you do as the ECU account manager for the American Red Cross?As the on campus account manager for the American Red Cross I help to coordinate on campus blood drives. Basically in short, I walk sponsor groups from pre-planning all the way to the completion of their blood drive. I also ensure that the sponsor groups have all the required materials they need to meet their goals. Through my job I manager the 3000 pints of blood that ECU collects in one year.

How do you handle the responsibility?Being a full-time student and ensuring that all of the 200 sponsor groups are running efficiently is not a stress free task. A great deal of responsibility comes with the position. I am the type of person that makes list and folders. Being organized is key in the success of anything that I undertake. I am a strong supporter in the use of color coded post-it notes! To ensure every detail is planned out and there is a back up just in case something fails.

What impact do you have as the ECU account manager?As the account manager for ECU my impact is judged on the amount my fellow students bleed! The position of Red Cross account manager is such an important task—without account managers there would be no line between donors and hospitals. We plan and ensure that the hospitals in our region have a sustainable supply of blood for use in emergencies, surgeries, and cancer treatments. As the ECU account manager my impact is shown through the success of my sponsor groups because they are the true reason why ECU is the top college donor for our region.

Why is giving blood important?I cannot stress how important it is to donate blood. Although you cannot predict the future, chances are relatively high that you will need a blood transfusion. Giving today ensures that the pint that is needed can be there, whether it is for a car crash victim or someone who is undergoing a surgical procedure. Plus it makes you feel good that you have made a difference.

To learn more about on campus blood drives of the American Red Cross, contact Will Thomas at 252-328-2735 or wtt0827@ecu.edu.

Share a bit about the volunteer experiences you have had at ECU.While at ECU I have found and taken advantage of the many volunteer opportunities that ECU and the Greenville Community has to offer. My first semester I volunteered at the University Million Meal Challenge, where I helped other volunteers make a small dent in a large problem: world hunger.

Will assists a kindergarten student as she makes a rainbow during literacy day 2010.

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A Pirate’s Guide to Service Page 3

The Pirate Tutoring Center (PTC) helps ECU students through peer academic tutoring, academic success strategies, individual assessment and consultations, and outreach initiatives in order to enhance academic performance and success. PTC offers Peer Tutoring three evenings per week; Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 6:30 pm to 9 pm at Joyner Library. Volunteer Peer Tutors are needed to help students in 1000 and 2000 level courses. This is a great service and outreach opportunity for students interested in serving on the ECU campus.

The Pirate Tutoring Center

Peer tutors must have:• A minimum 3.00 GPA• Successfully completed a minimum of 30 semester hours at ECU• Be a full-time students enrolled in at least 12 semester hours of coursework• Earned at least an A or B in the courses identified for tutoring• Possess excellent communication skills and be able to work with students from diverse backgrounds

Benefits of being a PTC tutor include:Maintain a record of academic leadership at East Carolina University.Enhance your resume, application recommendations, and upcoming interviews.Establish documented service hours with the Volunteer and Service Learning Center and PTC.Network with the over 185 other students volunteering as Peer Tutors with the Pirate Tutoring Center this year.

Interested volunteers can contact Elizabeth Coghill at 328-6001 or tutoring@ecu.edu.

T.R.I.P.S. Returns to Greenville

Students stand on top of a mound of bagged oyster shells, which will soon be returned to local estuaries.

Spring break often conjures mental images of white sand beaches populated by thousands of college students relaxing under a hot sun. But for 36 ECU students, black mold suits and waders replaced bikini’s and flip flops. Those 36 students chose to participate in T.R.I.P.S. (turning responsibility into positive service) through the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center. Together, they contributed more than 1,000 hours of service over seven days in Atlanta, Georgia and Cartaret County, North Carolina.

Students in Cartaret County worked with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, a non-profit organization that focuses exclusively on protecting and restoring the coast of North Carolina through education, advocacy and habitat preservation and restoration. Students removed invasive plant species, rehabilitated walking trails, and bagged oysters. Oysters are a vital to healthy estuaries because they filter harmful pollutants, sediment, and excess algae from the water. The oyster shells bagged by ECU students will be returned to North Carolina waters where free-floating organisms like baby oysters will attach to their surfaces and grow.

Students working in Atlanta teamed up with Community CollaborationsInternational (CCI), an organization that provides support for service-related group travel in the U.S. and abroad. CCI placed ECU’s group in Atlanta, where they were initially scheduled to perform flood relief activities to support the nearly 5,000 families affected by recent flooding. Two days before the group departed from Greenville however, they were moved to a new project, rehabilitating an orphanage that had burned in 2007.

The group spent their week tearing down walls, removing debris, and installing new drywall. The days were long, the work was dusty, but the team made significant progress on the orphanage’s facility.

Recruitment for 2011 T.R.I.P.S. leaders begins soon. Check the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center Web site for more information and applications.

A Pirate’s Guide to Service Page 4Calendar of Upcoming Events

Volunteer and Service-Learning CenterOld Cafeteria Complex

252-328-2735 (phone) 252-328-0139 (fax)www.ecu.edu/vslc vslc@ecu.edu

Shawn Moore, Community Partner CoordinatorJessica Gagne Cloutier, Service-Learning Coordinator

Michael Loeffelman, Volunteer CoordinatorJudy Baker, Institutional and Community Development Consultant

Kimberly Caudle, AmeriCorps*Vista Members

March Edition 2010

Blood Donation Fact

Blood cannot be manufactured;

it can only come from volunteer donors.

Source: American Red Cross

Blood DrivesTuesday, April 7 from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.Student Health Center

Thursday, April 8 from noon until 6:00 p.m.Sweethearts at Todd Dining Hall

Wednesday, April 14 from 1:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.Sigma Phi Epsilon House, 5th Street

Thursday, April 15 from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.Allied Health Building

Pirate FestFriday, April 9, from 2:30 p.m. until 10:30 p.m (shifts).Contact Mike Loeffelman at loeffelmanm@ecu.edu.Volunteers will help set-up, clean-up, and staff counters and information tables.

Luminary ConstructionFriday, April 9 from noon until 5:00 p.m.Sign up at www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/102-62263827831.Volunteers will help construct paper lumunaries for HolocaustAwareness Day in the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center.

Pirate FestSaturday, April 10 from 6:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. (shifts).Contact Mike Loeffelman at loeffelmanm@ecu.edu.Volunteers will help set-up, clean-up, staff counters and information tables, paint faces and run carnival games.

Holocaust Awareness DayTuesday, April 13 from 3:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. (shifts).Sign up at www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/88-62238066826.Volunteers will help place, light, monitor and extinguish 1,000 luminaries on the mall.

The Big SweepSaturday, April 17 from 8:00 a.m. until noonContact Kelly Jochim at Kelly@ptrf.org.Volunteers are needed to assist with cleaning the Tar River. Some kayaks available for individual with experience. Groups welcome.

Images from the Grand Opening of the Campus Kitchen at East Carolina

University, February 24, 2010