Volunteers give back to the community during 'COD Cares: Roll Up Your Sleeves Service Day'

Nearly 200 College of DuPage students, faculty and staff participated in the "COD Cares Roll Up Your Sleeves Service Day," donating their time and services to 15 DuPage County organizations.

Joined by Team NM, Northwestern Medicine's employee-based volunteer program, service day volunteers visited organizations throughout the community, including Beds Plus Shelter, Conservation Foundation, COD Prairie, Cupertino Home, Danada Equestrian Center, DuPage Children's Museum, Earth Paint, Helping Hand Center, Humanitarian Service Project, Operation Support Our Troops, People's Resource Center, Philip J. Rock Center, SCARCE, St. James Farm, Synapse House and the West Suburban Community Pantry.

Activities included cleaning and sorting supplies for homeless shelters, building and planting a raised garden for physically-challenged clients and assembling care packages for deployed troops. During the service day, volunteers processed more than 500 gallons of latex paint for recycling, tagged 75 storm drains in Glendale Heights, and sorted 400 books for repurposing.

"This is my first time volunteering in the U.S. and it was a wonderful experience to help so many," said COD student Adlai Gonzalez, who volunteered at Operation Support Our Troops. "While they may be many miles away from you, you still feel as if they appreciate it. The giving spirit of the day also was a good reminder and motivator to help the person who is right next to you."

"COD Cares" is a campus-wide program for students and staff to participate together in service activities that benefit communities served by College of DuPage.

Learn more about COD Cares at www.cod.edu.