by Bob Keyes
PORTSMOUTH — Great Bay Community College is offering students more chances to volunteer in the community.
Student Life assistant Sara Poulin said the college used to offer just
two volunteer opportunities a year, but students asked for more, so they
started arranging monthly volunteer outings this summer. The program
was successful, so the school continued the program through the fall and
is planning opportunities for the spring semester.
The Student Life Department now maintains an ongoing list of places
where Great Bay students have volunteered before and places that are
looking for help, such as the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Newington,
Operation Blessing in Portsmouth and Greenleaf Recreation Center in
Portsmouth.
Student Katti Mowers, who is graduating this spring with an associate
degree in hospitality management and a certificate in meeting and event
coordinating, participated in the school’s hospitality club last year.
Great Bay compensates the club for the volunteer work they do, so they
have been involved in a number of volunteer projects.
Mowers said they helped the United Way with their “Purses for a Purpose”
silent auction at the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel, wrapped
presents at a church in Portsmouth before Christmas, assisted children
with games during “Ghost on the Bankes” at Strawbery Banke Museum in
downtown Portsmouth and worked at Operation Blessing on Lafayette Road.
“We did whatever they needed us to do,” Mowers said of their time at
Operation Blessing, which has served the needs of over 187,000 people in
times of crisis. “We helped with cleaning out their winter clothes to
help them prepare for their spring attire, cleaned windows, helped
rummage through donation boxes and folded the clothes.”
Mowers said when they took a club trip to New Orleans, La., last year,
they volunteered at a nonprofit restaurant called Café Reconcile.
