As a new semester begins, the Volunteer ETSU program seeks to involve students and give a new perception of what volunteering is. Having had successful events in the past such as blood drives, awareness events, discussions and community service opportunities, their plans for 2024 surround giving back to the city with fun events.

Spencer Sheets is the president of Volunteer ETSU along with Blain Poggemeyer as vice president. The two have seen immense growth in their program, recently implementing a new student community coordinator program with eight new student positions compared to last spring when the club only consisted of one president.

“Not only are they volunteering with their peers, but they see ‘Hey, look, this family of four is volunteering, or this elderly couple is coming out to help,’” Sheets said. “Maybe this is something I can keep doing even after ETSU.’”

Their biggest event last year was the Johnson City Beautification Day event in March which took place at King Commons where they partnered with Visit JC and Young Professionals to help clean up trash in Downtown Johnson City. A total of 160 students and members of the community came together and impacted the city with a great turnout, Sheets mentioned he filled four to five trash bags just by himself.

As an annual event, they hope to beautify the city even more this March as they already have 80 participants set for the next beautification event. Celebrating the success of the program, the two have had support from Leadership and Civic Engagement and President Noland due to their aid towards not only ETSU but Johnson City as a whole.

“Our ultimate mission is to help students see that volunteering isn’t just something for their classes or to look good on a resume,” Sheets said. “The main goal is to make lifelong volunteers.”

(Contributed/Volunteer ETSU)

Spreading the helper spirit while enforcing a convivial atmosphere, this semester, Volunteer ETSU plans to add two more service events per month aside from Service Saturdays and aims to make them more accessible by making them on-campus for students to join. Their first Service Saturday of 2024 is set to happen Feb. 17 from 8:30 a.m. to noon. For more information on Volunteer ETSU and its upcoming events, visit their Instagram page at @volunteeretsu.

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