By Kathy L. Collins
Students in Hillsborough County need service hours for many reasons including graduation requirements, college applications and scholarships. Similarly, volunteers are often the life blood for many local non-profits.
In an effort to help students get the hours they need and non-profits the volunteers they need, the Community Roundtable is holding a Community Service Forum on Thursday, September 29 at Brandon High School located at 1101 Victoria St. in Brandon. The event will take place from 6-8 p.m. and free to all who wish to attend. The event will be taking place on the same evening as College Night.
Janine Nickerson, the president of the Community Roundtable said, “The mission of the Community Roundtable is to assist all of the non-profits in the greater Brandon area. The Community Service Forum provides an opportunity for local non-profits to showcase their organization’s purpose. It also allows students and adults to meet with the local charities and gain an understanding of their goals.”
The first Community Service Forum was held in November 2013 at Bloomingdale High School and attracted a record number of students and non-profits.
Nickerson added, “This is the first time we are holding the Community Service Forum in conjunction with College Night. Since students will be gathering information for choosing their college, many will be seeking scholarships as well. The Bright Futures Scholarship program requires volunteer service hours, so this is a natural fit.”
The Community Roundtable will be holding another Community Service Forum in the spring so that students matriculating from eighth grade to ninth can begin their volunteer hours during the summer.
Nickerson said, “Parents have literally come up to us to give us a hug for providing information about the local opportunities for service hours. Students appreciate knowing about neighborhood non-profits. If the purpose of requiring service hours is to ignite the spark of volunteerism, then showcasing the variety of non-profits in our community will help students find something that touches their hearts thus creating life-long volunteers.”
The Community Roundtable is an all-volunteer organization that has been serving the greater Brandon community for nearly 60 years.
For more information, visit www.communityroundtable.org.
