Make a Difference Day was on Saturday October 27, 2012.

The CCE sponsored 4 service projects for this National Day of Service.

1.) Starker Arts Garden for Education (SAGE Garden)
2.) Home Life, Inc.
3.) Trillum Family Services, Children's Farm Home
4.) Linn Benton Food Share

How we made a difference:

The Center for Civic Engagement would like to extend huge thanks and appreciation to our 39 volunteers from the OSU community who completed 4 different service projects in the community for Make a Difference Day on Saturday October 27th! The service projects were an incredible success, as OSU volunteers made a difference by planting cover crops, harvesting grapes, making holiday cards and repackaging bulk food items. Please read below for the results in numbers and narrative form.

• 4 projects at SAGE garden, Trillium Family Services, Linn Benton Food Share, and card making benefiting Home Life
• 39 volunteers
• 85.5 hours of service
• Community Impact:
  • 4,000 pounds of food repackaged
  • 30-40 cubic yards of garden weeded and prepared for winter
  • 25lbs of potatoes harvested and donated to Stone Soup
  • Beautiful seasonal Autumn cards crafted and delivered to Home Life
  • 500 pounds of concord grapes harvested to be made into jam

39 volunteers separated into four groups that participated in projects at SAGE garden, Trillium Family Farm Home, Linn-Benton Food Share, and hand-making cards to be delivered to Home Life.  Despite the rain, volunteers harvested 25 pounds of potatoes to donate to Stone Soup. Also at SAGE, volunteers winterized a 30-40 cubic foot garden space by weeding, spreading lime, and planting cover crops such as beans. Another group of volunteers worked at Trillium Family Farm home where between the volunteers picked 500 pounds of concord grapes. These grapes will be made into jam to be sold in the gift shop at Trillium. At Linn-Benton food share, we had students repackage over 4,000 pounds of bulk food items such as carrots, green beans and oats into smaller sized portions to be distributed to local food banks. The volunteers at this site packaged more food than the total weight of all the volunteers combined! Our last group spent Saturday morning making creative handmade fall themed cards that were delivered to Home Life.

Make A Difference Day is the most encompassing national day of helping others. Held annually on the fourth Saturday of October, millions of Americans are rallied into a single day of action to help change the world.

Make A Difference Day is a national effort designed to mobilize citizens in communities across the country in volunteer service. Make A Difference Day is cosponsored by USA Weekend Magazine and the HandsOn Network with the support of Paul Newman and Newman's Own, in collaboration with celebrities, government, nonprofits and businesses.