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Oles across U.S. volunteer for Day of Service

By Tom Vogel
May 1, 2007

On Saturday, April 21, in Washington, D.C.; New York; Chicago; Seattle; Denver; Madison, Wis.; Owatonna, Minn.; and the Twin Cities, Oles and their families put on their grubby clothes, picked up rakes and paint brushes and went out into their communities to lend a hand during the second annual St. Olaf National Day of Service.

Participation in this year's Day of Service surpassed last year's successful event, with 325 volunteers working from coast to coast. Throughout the day participants tackled more than 25 different projects, which included the restoration of a trail in Seattle, hauling firewood for a monastery near Madison, painting murals in a Minneapolis church Sunday classroom and reading with senior citizens in Owatonna.

Day of Service 2007, Denver
Mitch Lehn '92 helps unload several bags of dry goods to be repackaged for a Denver-area food shelf. Lehn and nearly 40 other Ole volunteers later were joined by President David R. Anderson '74.
In Denver President David R. Anderson '74 joined nearly 40 alumni at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Denver to repackage bulk dry goods for an area food shelf. After loading a flatbed truck with rice, oatmeal, pasta and beans, volunteers congregated at Bethany Lutheran Church for a luncheon with the president and his wife, Priscilla Paton, and other Colorado alumni.

Mitch Lehn '92, a volunteer board member for Metro CareRing (the organization that operates the food shelf) helped organize the Denver event for the second consecutive year.

"This is good for Denver-area alumni and good for the college," Lehn says. "Metro CareRing was thrilled to have this type of response from St. Olaf. The biggest benefit was that we were able to provide a lot of food for needy people in the Denver area."

At the same time, 128 St. Olaf alumni and 58 students were taking on 16 projects across Minneapolis and St. Paul. Kristen Meier '03, who volunteered picking up garbage and planting flowers around St. Paul's Lutheran church in Minneapolis, found the experience rewarding.

Day of Service Seattle
A group of Oles from the Puget Sound area work to restore a small portion of a trail in Discovery Park in Seattle. Volunteers hauled in crushed rock and widened the trail, which has been closed due to erosion.
"Everyone from the neighborhood was very friendly," says Meier, who recalls arriving at the church and seeing a 'Welcome, Oles!' sign hanging from its doors.

Although she initially was disheartened by the amount of garbage littering the streets, Meier says she felt the group accomplished something significant in the end. "When I took a moment to look up from the area where I was working and saw how many of us were helping out -- and later saw how much garbage we had collected -- it really seemed that we could make a difference in the area."

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.