Alums Give Back Through Day of Service

The Westmont Alumni Office launched its first Alumni Day of Service for alumni, students and staff with more than 50 volunteers serving on Feb. 7 across five different sites.

Teams worked with The Bucket Brigade, The Turner Foundation, Olive Crests's Hope Refuge, the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation and Doctors Without Walls.

“This growing service program emphasizes Westmont’s commitment to serve its community while strengthening alumni-student connections” says Janay Marshall ’01, director of alumni relations.

The idea for a Day of Service came about after several alums sent feedback in a survey requesting opportunities to serve. “Our hope is that by creating opportunities for our alumni, staff and students to serve alongside one another that it will create unique connections,” Marshall says.

Westmont even had a crew of Orange County alumni tackling a service project at the same time. The team planted, harvested and maintained the fields at Harvest Solutions Farm, which provides about 60,000 pounds of fresh produce every week for those in need in Orange County.

The Westmont Volleyball team joined The Bucket Brigade with alumni and their children in a unique opportunity to serve as a family, planting native flowering shrubs to restore the Ellwood Mesa Butterfly Preserve in Goleta. They also removed non-native, highly flammable plants and replaced them with native flowering shrubs.

Crews at the Turner Foundation helped sand and stain a fence at their community center. Volunteers at Hope Refuge got to meet some of the girls, who’ve been rescued out of sex trafficking, and helped with cleaning parts of the property.

The team at the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation created Taylor Swift-style bracelets for kids fighting cancer and their families. They then put together brown bags filled with socks, chocolates and encouraging notes for unhoused women. These bags were distributed for Valentine’s Day by Doctors Without Walls.

To learn more or get involved next year, please reach out by email to janaymarshall@westmont.edu.