Passing by Utica’s Salvation Army on a Thursday evening, one might assume a carnival is taking place behind its doors. Crashing cymbals, the occasional crack of a snare drum and muddled piano melodies can be heard from the Salvation Army’s chapel, their sounds pouring out into the street. Nearly overpowering this raucous symphony, the playful laughter and boisterous voices of the performance’s participants bring life to the musical melee taking place within. More ...

Campus service organization Hamilton Association for Volunteering, Outreach, and Charity (HAVOC) is sponsoring its traditional mitten tree and will make the holidays a bit cheerier for many children. This year the tree has more than 90 mittens marked with a child’s gift request.  Stop by to pick a mitten between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Wednesday through Friday, in Beinecke.
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Take an October afternoon of sunny skies and seasonable temperatures, toss in scores of activities, food and entertainment, and combine an enthusiastic group of Hamilton students with local families, and the result is a very successful Fall Fest 2009. More ...

The eighth annual Fall Fest will take place on Sunday, Oct. 25, on the Clinton Village Green from noon to 4 p.m. The event is organized annually by the Social Traditions Committee of the Hamilton College Student Assembly and is free and open to the public. More ...

On October 1, a new era in Hamilton community service was ushered in with the official opening in the Chapel of Hamilton’s new Community Outreach and Opportunity Project (COOP), a coalition of students and faculty that aims to increase Hamilton’s involvement with community service. The ceremony featured short addresses by staff members involved in COOP, as well as keynote speaker Steve Culbertson '79, president and CEO of Youth Service America, an organization dedicated to increasing availability of service and volunteer projects to young people. More ...

The war in Iraq became more personal for some members of the Hamilton community when they spent 12 days teaching an emergency medical technician (EMT) course to 25 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. The soldiers, who are being deployed to Iraq in October and were anxious to be as prepared as possible to be of assistance, requested the training. The EMT course was organized by Faxton-St. Luke's EMS Program Agency and Central Oneida County Volunteer Ambulance Corps (COCVAC). More ...

More than 130 students participated in HAVOC's annual Make a Difference Day on Saturday, Sept. 12. The students volunteered at the Utica Public Library, Loretto Utica Center, Your Neighbors Inc., Rome Humane Society, Kirkland Art Center, Kirkland Town Library, Hope House, and the Neighborhood Center, among others. Volunteers cleaned animal cages, walked animals, organized donations, and did facepainting for children. The event was followed by a reflection time/ice cream social. More ...

Hamilton College Opportunity Programs students got a taste of volunteer work when they participated in a statewide Opportunity Programs United Service Week in July. More ...

Study Buddies is an on-campus mentoring program that in recent months has taken initiatives to expand its mission. Co-directors Pat Hodgens '09 and Ben Dropkin '11 coordinate the partnership between HAVOC and For the Good Inc., a Utica non-profit run by Kirkland alumna Cassandra Harris-Lockwood '74. More ...