The Schlegel Center for Service and Justice held its annual Volunteer Fair on Sept. 14 in the Harper Ballroom. The fair exists to expose students to volunteer opportunities in Omaha. 

Shannon Mulcahey, Community Partnerships Intern for the SCSJ, worked closely with Wendy Maliszewski, the administrative assistant for the SCSJ, to organize the event. With planning starting as early as last April, the staffers reached out to a number of community agencies in order to bring them to campus this fall. 

More than 75 organizations attended the Volunteer Fair this year, and approximately 300 students were present. The Volunteer Fair began in 1987 and the Visiting Nurse’s Association has attended for all 29 years. 

The event hosts a wide array of different organizations with various needs. There were booths for community gardens, childhood development, hospice care, worker rights, homeless shelters and adult education centers. 

This year marked the beginning of the Creighton Global Initiative, a program focusing on international outreach. This initiative places a strong importance on services that extend beyond Omaha, exemplified by organizations providing refugee services, such as Benson Area Refugee Taskforce and Lutheran Family Services. 

The Creighton Global Initiative is just one manifestation of the Jesuit value “Men and Women For and With Others.” The Volunteer Fair seeks to expose new students to social justice organizations, but it does so with a mission of creating solidarity between Creighton students and the Omaha community. 

The Creighton students who engage in service are living out this Jesuit value, and that is one of the reasons that organizations keep coming to the Volunteer Fair. 

“The students who volunteer at the places are really passionate about whatever they are working with and they are also really committed to it … and that’s the reason they [the organizations] are coming back, it’s because of our students”

While students have this opportunity to learn about service, the organizations also benefit from putting up displays at Creighton. Many organizations operate with very few paid staffers, and they are able to provide their services through generous donations of time from the community. 

Students at the event attended for a variety of reasons. Chris Lewis, a Heider College of Business sophomore said, “I’m just trying to find new places for our monthly service outings.” As Vice President of Service for Creighton’s Kiwanis Club, he was excited to be able to see so many of the options at once and learn about them. 

Creighton students are often uniquely positioned to help these organizations and develop valuable skills at the same time, such as practicing a second language, utilizing financial tools, and gaining an understanding of the problems their community faces.