They served food in Yuma, handed out coats in Alaska, gave blankets to battered women in El Paso.
They dug a garden for underprivileged kids in New Jersey and cut potatoes for the poor in Maryland.
All across the U.S. near the end of November, Grand Canyon University online social work students fanned out to help in its first Social Services Week.
The results appeared together in the following weeks on a virtual posting wall – page after page of photos of students often in GCU gear and short summaries of how they contributed – that became a holiday feel-good of humanity.
They served lunch to patients in a health care facility. “I felt pure joy to see the amount of time put into bringing happiness to the lives of others,” wrote one student.
They grilled burgers for small-town kids and served at a homeless shelter in Bakersfield, California. “I realized how fragile life can be,” posted another student.
They passed out coats to people sleeping on the street, and “I was surprised how many people are out there in the cold. … Saw some sleepy, happy faces when I gave them a jacket.”
Marla Jones, in her third year of study toward a bachelor’s degree in social work, put up a Christmas tree at Healing House KC, whose founder, Bobbi Jo Reed, is the subject of 2021 documentary “Bobbi Jo: Under the Influence,” about a woman who overcame her addictions to start a recovery organization.
“It’s an amazing place,” said Jones of the Kansas City center. “I am in a 12-step program myself. They have a system that is phenomenal as far as peer support.”
Jones said volunteering is important in her field.
“I can’t see getting a social work education if you are selfish and self-centered,” she said.
Colin Witherspoon, social work faculty chair at GCU, said he thought that the number of undergraduate and graduate students prompted to join the service week effort would be smaller.
But 215 signed up – including many online faculty members.
“Our program is only four years old, so the vast majority of faculty who drove this and participated in this have only been with GCU for a couple years,” he said. “It was as much about community building with the faculty as anything else.”
The online social work programs have grown so fast that Witherspoon said he is typically hiring four faculty a month to keep up with the pace.
The effort didn’t surprise online full-time faculty member Dr. Magalie Nicolas, who helped distribute food in Miami, Florida, during a Thanksgiving meal drive.
“What was really neat about it was we were all doing it at the same time, around the Thanksgiving holiday season. It had a wonderful learning side and a service side,” she said. “It was memorable for students.
“It really speaks to the heart of social work, as far as giving and thinking about underserved communities.”
So they served lunch in a detox facility and handed cards to random people that read, “God loves you.”
They adopted kittens at an animal rescue and did free babysitting for single moms.
They smiled a lot in the act of giving, as you see here: GCU Social Work Service Week!
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]
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