West Virginia University’s efforts to promote service have resulted in 251,290 documented service hours and more than $5 million invested into communities throughout the state, according to Galaxy Digital, a leadership network for nonprofits, foundations and corporations.

WVU kicked off the Million Hour Match in 2015 in collaboration with Volunteer West Virginia and the Corporation for National and Community Service, inviting state residents to match them in completing 1 million hours of community service to inspire learning and promote civic engagement.

The WVU Center for Service and Learning has led the effort to recognize the importance of service for our students and our state.

“West Virginians have always been dedicated to the success of our state and this initiative has allowed us to highlight exactly what we do day-to-day to provide a lasting impact on our community,” said Dr. Kristi Wood-Turner, director of the CSL. “The Million Hour Match is a tribute to the amazing people who serve West Virginia.”

“By tracking hours, we can better understand where volunteering is happening and report the state of need in the community. Tracking volunteer hours also creates a metric to direct partnerships statewide in order to build coalitions of people doing similar service initiatives,” Wood-Turner said.

WVU students had the opportunity to engage in community service projects as a part of Welcome Week, including flood relief, food insecurity, clean-up and beautification efforts, among other projects. Just last month, students tracked 4,303 hours during the Governor’s Day to Serve.

The ongoing efforts will continue on Make a Difference Day, sponsored by the Mountaineer Maniacs, the next major initiative for the Million Hour Match.

The city-wide beautification project, slated for Sunday (Oct. 23), is the nation’s largest annual day of community service. Volunteers are still needed, and can sign-up at iServe, an online volunteer management system created for WVU by Samaritan Technologies to accommodate the increasing number of colleges, units, and departments reporting service hours at WVU.

The CSL collects service hours through iServe.

If you or your department has service hours not already recorded on iServe, where those hours are collected, the CSL encourages emailing iServe@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

ta/10/19/16

CONTACT: Leah Cunningham, WVU Center for Service & Learning
Leah.cunningham@mail.wvu.edu; 304.293.8348

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.