Community Works '08 kicks off

Brian Farkas News Editor

Last week’s Halloween pumpkin-carving contest marked the official beginning of the annual Community Works Campaign. For each pumpkin sold to contestants, five dollars were donated to Dutchess Outreach, one of 10 organizations that the Campaign will support this year.

Community Works hopes to raise $90,000 by the end of the campaign, which will be distributed evenly to these agencies. Last year, the campaign raised over $88,000, given to 14 different organizations in Dutchess County. Community Works is an annual campaign funded by donations from Vassar students, faculty, administrators and staff. Since its inception in 2001, it has provided funding for 27 nonprofit organizations in the Hudson Valley. Recipient organizations have a wide range of missions, from combating global warming to aiding diabetes patients, and are chosen each year by the steering committee.

Three students sit on this committee, including Vassar Student Association (VSA) President Sam Charner ’08 and the Student Assistants to the President Kyle Giunta ’08 and Jamie Rosen ’08.

“I am very happy with this year’s list and hope everyone will contribute to the campaign,” said Charner. “The Committee has spent the last month selecting this year’s' recipients. I think they are all great organizations.”

“Students are very involved on the Community Works Campaign,” said Rosen. “We help select the organizations that will be funded each year. Kyle and I are organizing a Community Works dinner for Nov 27 to help raise money for the Campaign and encourage student participation,” she said.

“We have spent many hours already in meetings dedicated to hammering out the details of the event and trying to make the campaign the best that it can possibly be,” said Giunta of the mid-semester event.

Giunta believes that Community Works fits into a broader goal of the Vassar administration to strengthen community relations. “Vassar-Poughkeepsie relations are of critical importance to [President Catharine Bond Hill] and to the College, and Community Works is one fantastic way in which we can help to strengthen those ties,” he said.

Nine of the organizations have been previous Community Works recipients. The one new recipient, Sustainable Hudson Valley, is an organization that works to address global warming at the local level.

Dutchess Outreach and New Horizons are two organizations that have received funding in past years. Dutchess Outreach serves people facing food shortages, utility problems, or a lack of medical supplies. Last year, they provided some 57,000 free meals to people across the County. New Horizons is a resource center for children and adults with disabilities. The center operates 19 residences, helping these individuals to live as independently as possible.

Donations are put to a wide variety of uses, according to Dutchess Outreach and New Horizons Chair of the Volunteer Committee Jennifer Nieves. “We have a food pantry, a soup kitchen, and a children’s clothing closet, just to name a few,” she said. “Every little bit helps, and Community Works is a great source of funding.”

This year, the format of the campaign is shorter, running only from Nov. 1 until Dec. 15. The committee also resolved to select only 10 agencies to support this year. In the 2007 campaign, funds were spread out over 14 organizations.

“We decided to return to our initial plan of selecting just 10 recipients so that we could give the agencies on the roster a more significant contribution,” said Community Works Director Jeffery Schneider, who felt that this would streamline the donations.

Schneider hopes that the campaign will result in greater communiy awareness. “Because Vassar College is an educational institution, I have felt that it is important to not only solicit donations, but to use the campaign as a way to educate ourselves as an institution about the local area.”

Members of the college community are also involved in some of the agencies. “Many times someone from Vassar is on the board of the organization, or students are volunteering or doing fieldwork with that agency,” explained Schneider. “Committee members also attend public events and fundraisers that these organizations hold, which also keep us informed about the activities of the agencies.”

Vice President for College Relations Susan DeKrey said that the Community Works Campaign helps to build on existing strong relationships with local organizations developed through Field Work and internships, and develops new relationships. “In both cases, people in the larger community get to know more about the college, and members of the campus community get to know more about what's going on in the larger community,” said DeKrey. “From the beginning, Community Works has been about this two-way educational process as well as fundraising.”

Each year, all members of the Vassar community are given the chance to tour several of the organizations funded by Community Works. “Staff at the agencies see that people here are interested in learning more as well as being generous donors,” said DeKrey.

Last fall, Vassar held its monthly forum for administrators at the Family Partnership Center in the City of Poughkeepsie instead of in the Villard Room, the traditional venue. The College also invites representatives to come to campus and meet with members of the Vassar community. “I think that all of these things, as well as the funds raised, build on how the community sees the College,” said DeKrey.

Director of Field Work Peter Leonard, who has sat on the Community Works Committee since 2001, in pleased with the goodwill the campaign has generated in Hudson Valley. “I do believe Community Works—because it happens in conjunction with other Vassar community effort—is changing our relationship and the perception of our relationship,” he explained. “I believe there is a greater sense of Vassar being an enduring presence in the wider community, which really makes us easier to trust. The Community Works program is an excellent, conspicuous and useful example of Vassar’s commitment.”