As the busy school year begins, we often focus our attention on our classes, schedule, homework, friends, etc. Fall is quickly approaching, and volunteering is a great way to give back to the community, especially as we prepare for another winter. Lisa Sackreiter, the Director of Service Learning & Community Engagement, remarks that service is a wonderful way to build relationships and create memories year-round. Sackreiter notes that, for her, “volunteering is an expression of gratitude.” She adds that service “comes from a place of abundance” because people have “skills, talents, or time…that that [they] can share with other people.” 

Service is a way to connect communities, and for Sackreiter, building relationships is one of the most important aspects. As a significant part of volunteering, the connections built with others are represented in one of the requirements for the Service Path Recognition, an award given to students who reach 100 hours of service during the year, and at least 50 of those hours are dedicated to one organization or cause. Sackreiter explains that this commitment allows students to “really get to know an organization or a cause and the people who are connected to that.” 

Establishing these relationships with those we meet through volunteer work is especially meaningful because we get to know them on a more personal level. Minha Ali ‘27 shares that she volunteers in the short-stay unit at the MN Health Fairview Hospital in Edina. She explains that her role as a volunteer there “revolves around what the nurses need.” Ali adds, “I fold gowns, I sometimes discharge patients, and I restock rooms.” Ali reflects on one of her most memorable moments as a volunteer at the hospital, sharing that “one time, there was a really random task for this [registered nurse], and she was like ‘come with me to my manager’s office, and I’ll get you candy.’” Small moments like these create fun memories to hold onto from a volunteering experience.

Megan Li ‘28 is a committee chair for AYLUS (Alliance of Youth Leaders in the United States), a student-run volunteer group that does a variety of service work, including working with Twin Cities in Motion, Special Olympics, and volunteering for Feed My Starving Children. Li reflects upon one of her favorite memories from the service that she does at AYLUS, sharing that it was from “last year’s Medtronic Marathon, where we stacked a pyramid of cups with drinks for the runners, and as they came by, they were so impressed. It was really fun to see everyone happy like that.”

In addition to the fun and lighthearted aspects of giving back to the community, volunteering provides many ways for one to benefit from the experience of working with others through service. Sackreiter explains that this work enables people to “just [be] out there in real life and [figure] it out.” She adds that many skills from volunteering “become more natural” over time, and that “your world become[s] bigger” as a result of volunteering. Sackreiter also believes that “reaching out to people outside of Blake” is not easy, and “mak[ing] some of those initial contacts or to sit[ting] down with somebody that you don’t know” are “really valuable skills.” Service also enables people to look to the future and think about what they want to do. Ali shares that she “want[s] to be a pediatrician” because she “really like[s] kids and like[s] medicine,” so she says with a smile, “Why not combine the two?” 

There are a variety of reasons for one to feel inspired to volunteer. Hunter Simon ‘26, who volunteered as a counselor at the Adventures in Cardboard summer camp, volunteered because of his own previous experience at the camp. Simon shares that he “had so much fun as a camper” at the Adventures in Cardboard camp, and that he wanted “to give that same fun experience to all these youngsters.” Many people also love to do service work to share what they have with others. Ali notes,“the fact that I grew up in a very privileged household” is part of what gives her the desire to give back. She adds, “I want to see myself giving back to my community and doing good because so much good has been done to me.”

Volunteering can also provide a sense of deep connection with those around us, even if we don’t speak the language or live in the same place. Sackreiter shares one of her most memorable service experiences, explaining that she helped “house asylum-seeking families in the upstairs classrooms of [a church] for five months.” She explains, “I frequently slept [at the church] myself, as a volunteer, [because] we had to have two overnight people.” For Sackreiter, the vulnerable human connection was the most moving aspect of this experience. She remarks that it was “a super powerful experience to connect with those families,” especially because she didn’t always need to speak the same language as they did: “We would use Google Translate sometimes, but it’s amazing how much you can communicate with people without using a lot of words.”

As we look ahead and get into the rhythm of the school year, volunteering is a great way to demonstrate gratitude and connect with others whom you might not typically encounter. Simon urges, “I think that everyone should consider volunteering at some point, [and] even if you don’t [volunteer] a lot, your contributions still matter.”