Upcoming Service Opportunities

by: Vanessa Ingram

Here are some volunteer opportunities for you to get involved in the community. For information on these programs and more, please visit the CCASL house and request information on these programs and more.

CCASL is well known throughout the Spokane community and is in direct contact with many resources and volunteer opportunities that enrich the Spokane community and provide Gonzaga students with tools they can use to make a difference by giving time and effort to others. Listed on this page are just a few of the volunteer opportunities that CCASL currently has listed for anyone who is interested:

October 29- November 16, 2012

The Giving Tree is an event that provides the Gonzaga community with a special opportunity to sponsor a child this holiday season. This is a clothing and toy drive to sponsor mentees from Campus Kids and Connections as well as their siblings during the holiday. Visit Crosby Monday-Friday between 10am-3pm to pick up a tag and sponsor a child this holiday season.

For more information contact Bailley Wootton at 509-313-6821

October 31, 2012 Boys & Girls Club of Spokane County, Northtown Clubhouse Volunteers will help with the "Trunk-or-Treat" event, which offers a safe alternative on Halloween for over 1,000 kids. Different volunteer opportunities include leading carnival games, leading children during the costume parade, greeting guests and ushering children across the street in the form of crossing guards. Interested student should contact Jason Anderson at 509-489-0741 or janderson@bgcspokanecounty.org

November 10-11, 2012

 Special Olympics Washington (SOWA)

 Volunteers are needed on November 10 from 12:30-6:40pm, and November 11 from 9am-12pm. Volunteers are needed to help Special Olympics athletes on the bowling lanes, and transfer the scores from the computer to the score sheets for each game. Interested students should contact Jill Ives at 509-460-1371 or jives@sowa.org .

Male Leaders in CCASL

By: Vanessa Ingram

An eleven year old boy is addicted to pain killers and living in a dilapidated house along with several other youths who are forever trapped in an endless cycle of drugs and poverty.

When witnessing a situation like this, we as human beings cannot help but ask ourselves, what can I do to make a difference? Jeb Berg asked himself this same question when he attended a CCASL retreat during his junior year at Gonzaga University.

“I couldn’t unsee it, I couldn’t unknow, and I couldn’t unlearn that experience.”  He said as he described his life changing experience with CCASL. Berg had previously pursued a business degree and hoped to possibly acquire a job on Wall Street.

But since that retreat, Berg has devoted his life to his fellow man by serving his community and now works as the community outreach coordinator at CCASL.

For the past 19 years, CCASL has been the center of community involvement and outreach within Gonzaga University by providing service-learning opportunities, managing career volunteer programs, and referring students to other volunteer programs off campus.

Through CCASL, not only do students have the opportunity to make a difference through community service, but they are also given various leadership skills and challenges that have a great impact on who they are.  “It has really impacted me a lot…” said Alicia Hungerford, a sophomore who is serving her second year at CCASL.

Although CCASL has experienced a large amount of participation from the Gonzaga student body over the years, there is a scarce number of male participants in each program.

As a result, CCASL is always looking for male participants for volunteers, especially in mentoring programs where young boys are in need of positive male role-models.

After expressing his first experience with CCASL, Berg also gave his opinion as to why there is such low male participation in CCASL programs. “They try to avoid situations where they will be uncomfortable or seem uncool, but what they don’t realize is that it is in that uncomfortable situation where they begin to grow as a person.”

Jeb urges male students to consider joining any of these programs because it is a life changing experience that they will not regret. “CCASL is a place where transformation happens”, he continued.