Cleaning up the Wekiva River, building houses and painting a school auditorium were among the many ways Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ students, staff and faculty members and alumni gave back to their communities on Saturday, Oct. 9.<\/p>\n
More than 650 volunteers participated in Knights Give Back, Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s annual campuswide day of service. They worked at nearly 20 sites in Orange, Seminole, Brevard, Volusia, Lake and Pinellas counties.<\/p>\n
For the first time, Knights Give Back included a service project outside of Florida. The Dallas-Fort Worth Alumni Chapter helped with a cat adoption project in Texas.<\/p>\n
Since the tradition began in 2007, Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ volunteers have provided several thousand hours of service on behalf of social services, the arts, animals, the environment and other causes.<\/p>\n
“The event was a success, and everyone had a great time,\u201d said Marlon Gut\u00ederrez, a senior business major and the student director for Volunteer Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½, which coordinates Knights Give Back. \u201cWe look forward to adding new sites and increasing the number of volunteers next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
STUDENT-LED SERVICE PROJECTS INCLUDED:<\/strong><\/p>\n — Cleaning and painting the auditorium at the Chiles Academy, a public charter school for pregnant and parenting teens in Volusia County. The group included about 15 Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Daytona Beach students and staff and faculty members.<\/p>\n \u201cThe school administrators were extremely appreciative, and it was a rewarding opportunity for us to give back to the less fortunate in our community,\u201d said Linda Bradley, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs and director of the Daytona Beach campus.<\/p>\n — Canoeing and cleaning the Wekiva River.<\/p>\n — Playing sports with youths served by Boys Town Central Florida. Most of the volunteers in this group were student-athletes on Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s baseball and track-and-field teams.<\/p>\n — Helping Pet Rescue With Judy coordinate a pet adoption fair at Waterford Lakes.<\/p>\n — Building homes with Habitat for Humanity in Cocoa.<\/p>\n — Helping to set up “The Celebration of Soul” festival in Lake County and assisting with floats for the parade.<\/p>\n ALUMNI-LED SERVICE PROJECTS INCLUDED:<\/strong><\/p>\n — A clean-up effort in the Parramore area coordinated by the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Black and Hispanic Alumni Chapter.<\/p>\n — Preparing a meal for the Ronald McDonald Share-A-Meal project. Most of the volunteers in this group were from the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Rosen College of Hospitality Management Alumni Chapter.<\/p>\n –Cleaning Melbourne Beach. Most of the volunteers in this group were from the Space Coast Alumni Chapter.<\/p>\n Knights Give Back promotes civic engagement while building partnerships and making a difference in the Central Florida community. It is sponsored by the Student Government Association, Volunteer Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ and the Office of Student Involvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleaning up the Wekiva River, building houses and painting a school auditorium were among the many ways Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ students, staff and faculty members and alumni gave back to their communities on Saturday, Oct. 9. More than 650 volunteers participated in Knights Give Back, Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½’s annual campuswide day of service. They worked at nearly 20 sites in Orange, Seminole, Brevard, Volusia,…","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":16751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2691,3486,4475,202,5105],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-16743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-knights-give-back","tag-office-of-student-involvement","tag-student-government-association","tag-alumni","tag-volunteer-ucf"],"yoast_head":"\n