Hunger Clean-Up Service Program Celebrates 15 Years with Community Wide Service Day

Released: 4/16/04

Marquette University will celebrate the 15 th anniversary of Hunger Clean-Up, its largest one-day community service project on Saturday, April 17, 2004 . Marquette students will gather on West Town Square next to the Alumni Memorial Union ( 1442 W. Wisconsin Ave. ) at 8 a.m . for a kick-off event. They will then leave to work at various sites throughout the city.

The annual spring event that combines community service, awareness and fundraising has significantly impacted Milwaukee . One day every year, for the past 15 years has certainly made a difference. Since the program's creation in 1990,

• Volunteers have raised and donated more than $235,000 to various local organizations.
  
• More than 17,550 students have volunteered with this program.
  
• Hunger Clean Up volunteers have served at more than 650 sites in the city.

Hunger Clean Up has greatly expanded since the program's inception in terms of number of volunteers, fundraising totals and service sites throughout the community. This year, about 1,500 Marquette students are participating in Hunger Clean Up and will be visiting over 100 service sites. These students have raised approximately $15,000 to be donated to three local organizations that work to help women and children who have been victims of abuse as well as women who are pregnant but do not have the resources necessary to raise a child. This year's fund recipients are Advocates of Ozaukee, Christ Child Society and St. Catherine's Residence.

Some of the best visuals can be found at the following sites:

1. Delphi House: 1113 N 21 st Street , Milwaukee
Students will be repairing a rock garden, dry walling, and playing with children there.

2. Walker 's Point Center for the Arts: 911 W. National Ave , Milwaukee .
Students will work with neighborhood children to clean up the urban garden by pulling weeds, planting seeds and bulbs, replacing wood chips and repairing planting beds.

3. Metcalfe Park Resident's Association: 2474 N. 37 th Street
Working with residents to clean up Metcalfe Park Neighborhood and painting porches for elderly residents.

4. Mount Carmel Nursing Home: 4059 S. 99 th Street . Greenfield , WI .
Students will help complete a wheelchair path in the nursing home's flower garden. They will also set up the garden for summertime outdoor activities.

In addition to volunteering the day of the event, student volunteers are also asked to obtain monetary pledges for the community service work they perform. The event is coordinated entirely by students through Marquette University 's Center for Community Service. The Center provides Marquette students the unique opportunity to enhance, expand and enrich their total educational experience through community service. The programs and services offered through the Center for Community Service allow students various opportunities to reflect on their educational and life-long goals beyond Marquette 's campus.

Each year, Marquette students, faculty, administrators, and alumni perform more than 100,000 hours of community service all over the world. Nearly 80 percent of Marquette undergraduate students participate in some form of service during their college experience. Marquette University 's long and proud history of community engagement is rooted in the university's Jesuit mission to develop leaders through service to others.