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Hamilton community service programs HAVOC and COOP collected food, gifts and other items to make the holidays a bit happier for some local families. The Hamilton Association for Volunteering, Outreach and Charity (HAVOC) sponsored a holiday Mitten Tree, bearing gift requests from children with a need.  The children’s gift requests came through House of Good Shepherd,  Johnson Park Center (JPC) in Utica, Upstate Cerebral Palsy, Siegenthaler Center (Hospice) and Rome DSS.

Aaron Astor ’95, an associate professor of history at Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn., shared his knowledge of the Civil War in Tennessee with a group of Hamilton students volunteering at the Cumberland Trail for their Alternative Spring Break trip on March 24.

Spring break doesn’t just mean fun in the sun for all college students. One-hundred Hamilton students are spending a week of their spring break volunteering at one of 10 nonprofit organizations for Alternative Spring Break (ASB), March 16-28.

Since it started in 2011, the Community Outreach and Opportunity Project, or COOP, has been buzzing with activity. It’s a win-win relationship. Hamilton students want to help their neighbors and effect positive change; and their neighbors, in the greater Mohawk Valley, provide numerous opportunities for activities like tutoring, working in soup kitchens or building houses, to name a few. In fact, the number of interactions with local organizations has grown annually, requiring the COOP to increase the number of it senior fellows.

Many Americans might find the Affordable Care Act difficult to understand, and some may feel daunted by the task of enrolling in health insurance under the new law, but a group of Hamilton College students is helping make the process easier for the surrounding community.

As the first semester of their two-year tenures wind down, eight COOP Service Interns can look back in pride. They look forward with even greater excitement.

Hamilton’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB) group in Virginia helped build a Habitat for Humanity house during the first week of spring break, March 16-23. The Hamilton students worked with Hanover Habitat for Humanity in Mechanicsville, where they helped build a house for a family in need.

The Community Outreach and Opportunity Project (COOP) is teaming up with Hamilton’s Physical Plant staff and Greek Philanthropy Union to provide 125 hams for Country Pantry, Clark Mills’ soup kitchen. The hams will feed 165 families on Easter.

While many of their counterparts hit beaches and ski slopes 102 Hamilton students are spending a week of their spring break volunteering at one of 10 nonprofit organizations for Alternative Spring Break (ASB), March 16-31.

Look at campus e-mail on any given day during Hamilton’s academic year and chances are there’s a service opportunity seeking volunteers. The people behind these numerous events are the Community Outreach and Opportunities Program (COOP) Senior Fellows – Danielle Lashley, Ramya Ramnath and Amy Soenksen. They coordinate volunteer requests with local non-profits, plan events and organize volunteers.