UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA RECEIVES 2021 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AWARD

“DM at UF holds an annual initiative for Giving Tuesday, where we invite all members of our organization to participate in service opportunities on campus and within the Gainesville community. This year was especially challenging for our rural community; due to the pandemic, many servant leaders were unable to volunteer and provide the essential support our community partners needed. We heard this message and knew that our passionate leaders would want to take on this task. Keeping careful consideration of CDC guidelines and Florida regulations, on December 1st, 2020, our organization united to give back to the community which gives so much to our cause. Together, roughly 125 of our servant leaders participated in our most successful Giving Tuesday event. Our goal was to engage our members across many different platforms and offer creative ways to give back to our community through socially distant/virtual efforts.

Leading up to this event, we collected material wish lists from three community partners: Alachua County Humane Society, Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, and Field and Fork Pantry. Our members brought these materials to outdoor drop-off locations leading up to December 1st. We were also able to arrange in-person volunteering opportunities where we gathered passionate volunteers within our organization to engage in acts of service with Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, Peaceful Paths, and Keep Alachua County Beautiful. Our volunteers scrubbed primate cages, removed several cars worth of trash from the streets of our city, and helped organize and create goods for those impacted by domestic abuse, all while using the proper personal protective equipment and physical distancing. Within our own campus community, we brought the Giving Tuesday spirit home by delivering virtual and handwritten testimonials to the faculty that make miracles both in our organization and our everyday lives. The success of our engagement across three involvement opportunities mirrored our organization’s yearlong goal of promoting engagement through hybrid activities to include all members.

We chose to focus on engaging with our local community because we intimately understood how devastating the pandemic had been for their organizations; yet, they never ceased to engage with our cause. Our goal was to express our gratitude for all they do for us and the city we live in while spreading awareness of Dance Marathon and what it means to us. By engaging people with a mindset for giving back within and beyond our campus we created lasting, trusting bonds that introduced community members to the fight to end childhood illness, which strengthened DM at UF in ways beyond imagined. The effects of our initiative included strengthening our reputation as servant leaders in our community, making a physical difference through partnerships with their organizations, and creating new allies to our fight to end childhood illness. Since Giving Tuesday, we continue to see an increase in the desire of our members to use their passion for others and volunteer regularly with our organization.”