Supporting DetailsSalem, Our Community

Student Organization Volunteerism & PhilanthropySurvey Results 2006

Where Willamette Student Organizations Volunteer

  • Highway cleanup
  • Local public schools (K-12)
  • Clothing drive (campus and Salem community)
  • Streetvision
  • Salem Friends of Felines
  • Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon
  • Cougar Creek Horse Ranch
  • Oregon Symphony
  • Humane Society
  • Salem Outreach Shelter
  • Bush Elementary (3)
  • Richmond Elementary (2)
  • Parrish Middle School
  • Peaceworks
  • Humane Society Thrift Shop
  • Marion Polk Food Share (2)
  • Salem Parks
  • Easter Seals Children’s Guild
  • Seattle Parks
  • Salem Community Center
  • Community Garden
  • SESNA
  • Mid-Valley Women’s Crisis Center (2)
  • Loaves and Fishes
  • Relay for Life (2)
  • Race for the Cure (2)
  • Discover Pink Breast Cancer Walk
  • Stream clean-up (campus and surrounding areas)
  • Oregon School for the Blind
  • Romp to Stomp Out Breast Cancer
  • Walk to D’Feet ALS
  • 12th Street clean-up
  • The Nature Conservancy

Philanthropic Endeavors — Students Raised more than $8,000 for local non-profits

  • Beta Theta Pi collected coats and warm clothing through their Penny Coat Drive for Union Gospel Mission
  • Alpha Chi Omega raised $600 for Mid-Valley Women’s Crisis Service through their 3-on-3 basketball tournament and donated birthday bags, blankets, clothing and toiletries to MVWCS.
  • Circle K donated six over-sized bags of socks to the Union Gospel Mission and HOME Teen Homeless Shelter and participated in a Rubber Ducky Race fundraiser for ALS Foundation.
  • SHE raised $5,000 in the benefit production of “The Vagina Monologues” to be donated to a local organization in Salem which helps victims of domestic and sexual violence.
  • Delta Gamma donated half the proceeds of Anchorsplash to Oregon School for the Blind.
  • Phi Delta Theta raised $700 for ALS Research from Lou Gehrig Softball Tournament; $400 from the Rubber Ducky Race for ALS Research and $1,000 for cancer research from Mr. Willamette.
  • Pi Beta Phi raised $300 for the Salem Literacy Foundation from their volleyball tournament.

Types of Volunteer Work Performed

The types of volunteer work student organizations offer the community include:

  • tutoring,
  • reading to children,
  • volunteering in after school programs for at risk children,
  • dancing for community organizations,
  • raking leaves for the elderly,
  • hanging Christmas lights for people unable to do it themselves,
  • building houses for Habitat,
  • staffing fundraisers like Romp to Stomp Breast Cancer and Race for the Cure,
  • collecting warm clothing for Union Gospel Mission,
  • stream clean-up and restoration,
  • street clean-up,
  • landscaping in different parks throughout Salem,
  • sponsoring events like Bearcat Day (activities) for Bush Elementary, and
  • offering trick or treating on campus (Haunted Halls) to Salem children.

Of the 15 student organizations that reported volunteering in the community, 27 percent volunteer at Salem-Keizer public schools.

Many Willamette University students volunteer for more than one type of service. Forty-seven percent of student organizations report participating in one-time service projects, 73 percent participated in ongoing projects and 40 percent of the volunteering was event assistance.