The ISU community gathered Saturday morning for a day of community service — CyServe Day. 

The day that arrives once every semester is dedicated to helping the ISU and Ames communities.

Eleven events and several volunteer opportunities took place throughout the day, both on and off campus. The day started at 9 a.m. and lasted until 4:30 p.m.

The 312 students who signed up to volunteer had the choice to clean up Ames High School; paint the walls of the KHOI radio station; sort food, clothing and toy donations; paint banners for Dance Marathon; make tie blankets for Project Linus; and many others. 

The event was planned to be publicized for engineer and greek students. Engineer students can check in for E-Week, and greek students are able to aquire volunteer hours for homecoming. However there are no outside rewards for participating with CyServe. 

The committee didn’t reach their goal of 350 volunteers but they commented that it was most likely due to weather and lack of knowledge. The main outreach they recieve for publicity are from the greek community as well as the Volunteer Center of Story County. 

Volunteers started their day off by checking in the Memorial Union and wait for instructions and transportation to start their 1-2 hour shift. 

Kelsey Behnke, senior on CyServe’s executive board, was eager to talk about organization merchandise being sold at check-in, such as Love Your Melon, a charity to benefit children with cancer, as well as ACCESS, an outreach program for victims for sexual and domestic abuse.  

“It’s a great way for people to look around during the long wait before their shift begins,” Behnke said. 

Carolyn Goossen, senior on the public relations committee, said ‘Make ISU Beautiful’ was the most popular among students. A close second behind the campus clean up was making tie blankets for Project Linus. 

In past years, Cyserve day held volunteer opportunities for Colleges Against Cancer, Goodwill, and Riverside Enrichment Community. Colleges Against Cancer had a lot of volunteers and it also helped Relay For Life. 

Every semester they have different volunteer opportunities with different organizations in the Ames community. They usually involve activities like painting banners for student organizations, sorting clothing for thrift stores, or food for food drives, as well as helping local businesses. 

One of the hardest part of planning for this day was providing transportation for the volunteers off campus adn communicating with the volunteers about their specific jobs during their shift.

Carolyn Goossen, senior on the public relations committee, said she had plans to grow CyServe Day.

“Publicizing it better, we’re always shooting for more volunteers and more collaboration,” she said. 

CyServe hopes to add more collaboration with other student organizations next semester and increase organization merchandise like Love Your Melon and ACCESS.