Kennesaw State’s Department of Student Leadership and Service hosted the last Service Saturday of Fall 2019 Saturday, Nov. 16, at McKenna Farms Therapy Services in Dallas, Georgia.
The volunteering — which lasted from 9 a.m. to noon — involved maintenance cleaning and landscaping for McKenna Farms, according to the Volunteer KSU entry for Service Saturday.
“Service Saturday is to get students involved in the community,” KSU Assistant Director of Volunteerism and Service Learning Ryan Keese said. “As the Leadership and Service Department, we feel it’s important for students to understand what leadership looks like through making an impact in your community. Service is a great way to get connected to your community and understand the individuals who live there as well as some of the issues or needs that exist.”
The purpose of Service Saturday is to introduce KSU students to volunteering if they lack volunteerism experience and engage the community with students who wish to do so through KSU, Keese said.
McKenna Farms is a nonprofit organization that provides therapy services to children and adolescents in northwest Georgia and the metropolitan Atlanta area with special needs, according to the McKenna Farms website.
Service Saturday formally began in 2018 and has taken place in most months since its inception, Keese said.
Although Service Saturday is a smaller volunteering event than other KSU volunteering initiatives — such as the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Week Day of Impact in January or the KSU Day of Service every March — it is planned to expand in the future, Keese said.
Because Service Saturday only involves 12 to 24 students, it does not occur during the months of larger service initiatives so as not to compete with them, Keese said.
“Service Saturday is a perfect way to dip your toe into the world of service and volunteering,” Keese said. “If you’ve never participated in service before, and you’re thinking about it, it’s definitely a great way to be oriented and introduced to how rewarding an experience it can be.”
KSU’s SLS Department organizes curricular and extracurricular leadership programs for students to increase their social awareness and ability to engage with the campus and community, according to the SLS Department website.
More information about future Service Saturday, as well as sign-ups for future Service Saturdays, can be found at Volunteer KSU’s website.
