2011 Community Service

Why Should I Volunteer?

Many college students may not be aware just how valuable community service is but it can play a huge role in your future.  Perhaps most importantly, being charitable and giving back helps to better society as well as improves one’s individuality.  It can also directly affect your job search once you graduate.  Serving your community will help you to develop and enhance leadership skills, which increases your chances of getting an interview or a job offer.  What do employers think when they see Community Service on a resume?  They see someone who stands apart from the masses, who has a well-rounded background, and someone who would definitely be a motivated employee! Check out DMAC's Community Service Scholarship Program.

How can I get involved?

Getting involved is easy!  Digital Media Arts College already has relationships with several organizations that you can plug into or you can simply explore others by performing a search online! 

To get you started here are some websites with a variety of volunteer opportunities available:

1800 Volunteer- http://www.1800volunteer.org/1800Vol/OpenIndexAction.do                                               

HandsOn Network- http://www.handsonnetwork.org/volunteers

United Way Volunteer Center- http://www.unitedwaypbc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.volunteer&

Teenlink South Florida- http://www.southflorida.com/specialsection/teenlink/sfe-teenlink-volunteer,0,7394686.story

Here are just a few of the volunteer opportunities we’ve done in the past:

Adopt-A-Highway

• www.adoptahighway.com
• Adopt-A-Highway is a national campaign to encourage volunteers to have a hands-on role in keeping their local roads clean of litter and debris.  Four times per year, DMAC students, faculty and staff donate a few hours of their time to clean our adopted highway: Glades Road between Airport Road and Palmetto Park Road.  In addition to our recycling program, Adopt-A-Highway is a way for DMAC to directly impact our environment in a positive way.

 American Cancer Society

• www.cancer.org
• Together with our millions of supporters, the American Cancer Society (ACS) saves lives and creates a world with less cancer and more birthdays by helping people stay well, helping people get well, by finding cures, and by fighting back.  The American Cancer Society is a nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem.

Boca Helping Hands

• www.bocahelpinghands.org
• Boca Helping Hands first opened as a Food Center in November 1998, serving nutritious hot lunches 3 days a week and giving out bags of groceries to families. An after-school sandwich program started in March 1999. The Food Program has expanded to five days a week and includes delivering home cooked meals to homebound disabled and elderly individuals. The organization opened an Assistance Center four years later in April 2002 with a focus on providing financial help for people in crisis situations (e.g., eviction, utility cancellation, prescription medication).  Now in its 12th year of serving the community, Boca Helping Hands has expanded the Job Mentoring Center that provides coaching and guidance designed to help individuals re-enter the community as positive and productive members of society. These services complement the food and assistance programs in its effort to continue to provide compassionate service designed to instill dignity and break the cycle of dependence. 

 Florence Fuller Center

• www.florencefullercenters.org
• Florence Fuller Child Development Centers, Inc. is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit offering affordable childcare, quality preschool (including the only Head Start and Early Head Start programs in Boca Raton), enriched afterschool and summer camp for low-income families.  Comprehensive support services include a food program providing two-thirds of the children’s nutritional needs, medical screenings and a clinic where mildly ill children are cared for by a registered nurse, alleviating the need for parents to take time off work.

Habitat for Humanity

• www.habitat.org
• Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry.  The organization seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.  To accomplish these goals, it invites people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build houses together in partnership with families in need.  Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976 by Millard Fuller, along with his wife, Linda.  Today, the organization and its volunteers have built over 350,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1.75 million people in 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter.

 Operations Gratitude

• http://www.opgratitude.com/
• Operation Gratitude is a non-profit, volunteer-based corporation, funded entirely by private donations. Operation Gratitude seeks to lift morale and put smiles on faces by sending care packages and letters addressed to individual Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines deployed in harm's way.

·         Through collection drives, letter writing campaigns and donations of funds for shipping expenses, Operation Gratitude provides civilians anywhere in America a way to express their respect and appreciation to the men and women of the U.S. Military in an active, hands-on manner.

Toys for Tots

• www.toysfortots.org
• The mission of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.  The primary goal of Toys for Tots is to deliver, through a new toy at Christmas, a message of hope to less fortunate youngsters that will assist them in becoming responsible, productive, patriotic citizens.  The objectives of Toys for Tots are to help less fortunate children throughout the United States experience the joy of Christmas; to play an active role in the development of one of our nation’s most valuable resources – our children; to unite all members of local communities in a common cause for three months each year during the annual toy collection and distribution campaign; and to contribute to better communities in the future.