The Stanford Business Reporter

On Saturday, January 12, 114 members of the GSB community volunteered at six different organizations for the first ever Community Impact Day.

The history

Last spring, the new PMP leadership set out to strengthen the presence of the PMP on campus. The PMP service committee was created out of that effort with a mission of increasing awareness of, and access to, service activities on campus.

As co-chairs, we set the committee’s goals for the 2001 –2002 academic year. Our top priority was to create more opportunities for members of the GSB community to participate in service orientated activities.

Based on the enthusiasm for C4C, Friends for Youth and IHAD, we were confident in our classmates’ demand for volunteer opportunities. We felt we could harness this demand to a greater extent by offering a greater diversity of activities.

The solution we focused upon was to designate a service day each quarter where students could lead volunteer activities at an organization, which they or another student identified as a compelling beneficiary. By giving individual students the opportunity to propose different organizations with which they were already involved or had an interest in becoming involved, we accomplished two goals – increasing the diversity of opportunities and making our jobs easier!

The idea did not become a reality until this fall, when an eager and dedicated team rallied around our cause--James Dailey, MBA1, Cori Duncan, MBA2, Sarah Elk, MBA2, Darren Johnston, MBA1 and Yasmin Zarolia, MBA1. In addition to the critical support from these individuals, impact day was dependent on the students who took the time to propose organizations and activities. We received event proposals from Sean Arnold, MBA1, Allison Broker, MBA2, James Dailey, MBA1, Cori Duncan, MBA2, Sarah Elk, MBA2, Josh Klevens, MBA2, Bryna Chang, MBA1, and Andre Vanier, MBA1.

The organizations and activities from impact day are listed below. Followed by some highlights from the day.

-Habitat for Humanity: 39 students participated in early-stage construction of three single-family, low-income houses in Campbell.

-Half Moon Bay Wildlife Refuge: 18 students removed non-indigenous plants and trash from the beach.

-Menlo Park VA Geropsychiatric Ward: 11 volunteers gardened and performed site preparation for wheelchair access paths.

-San Francisco Food Bank: 21 students sorted 5 tons of food for local families and nonprofits.

-San Francisco Street Project: 5 students hosted 12 children from Hamilton House, a homeless shelter, at an all-star college football game in Pac Bell Park.

-Special Olympics: 20 volunteers helped run a floor hockey tournament at San Jose State University.

Here is a glance at what happened on Saturday.

4:00am First-years crawl into bed after too many games and drinks at broomball on Friday night. Some first years (who will remain nameless) scramble to swap their ‘early’ floor hockey slot for the afternoon shift.

8:00am 18 GSBers and their SOs realize that their day of beach cleanup is going to involve gardening on a large scale. Working atop a cliff with a gorgeous ocean view, their ranger, Bob (no joke!), tells them to start pulling German ivy, or the "bright green stuff."

9:00am Kyle Chenet, MBA2, transforms himself into a cheerleader for the Special Olympics athletes by donning a skimpy top and skirt and performing cartwheels.

10:00am Laurie Sheflin, MBA2, Clinton Moloney, MBA1, Shani Jackson, MBA1, and Priyanka Garg, MBA2 start to feel old when Gerald Ford speaks at the football game and the kids are shocked when they learn that he is a former U.S. President.

10:30 am At the SF Food Bank, Matt Spanjers, MBA2 shouts, "we have to stress the system!" as he systematically evaluates whether each volunteer is working hard enough.

11:00am After developing new expertise in identifying German ivy and newts (discovered by SO Jen Porter), the beachgoers have an unceremonious burial for their ivy. Michelle Hall, MBA1, feels a sense of satisfaction at having "done something."

12:00pm Not to be outdone by Spanjers, Greg Miliotes, MBA2 applies strategic thinking (like driving the cool tractor thingy around) and wows the Food bank director – so much so, Greg is awarded the MVP prize at the closing ceremony. Rumor has it that Greg has an offer to return to the Food Bank full time.

1:00pm Rod Morris, MBA2 and Emily Felling, MBA1, dig in their shovels to improve the garden at the Menlo Park VA Geropsychiatric Ward.

2:00pm While most other activities are winding down, activity is still buzzing at the Habitat for Humanity site. Ana Pedros, MBA1, realizes she likes hammering almost as much as she likes helping people.

5:00 pm Karen Lee, MBA2,

reveals the hottest counterfeit cash since the FOAM dollar – the SUPER VOLUNTEER Dollar. 30 – 40 students collect to drink beer and lemonade and share stories of laughter and reward from their various volunteer activities. The sense of satisfaction and happiness was quite apparent amongst the volunteers. According to C4C organizer Christian Lawrence, MBA2, "A fun day was had by all." Matt Mooney, MBA2 had so much fun that rumor has it he is working on a business plan to replace rugby by introducing floor hockey into New Zealand as the new national sport.

After such a satisfying first event, we are excited to have even more people participate in the next Community Impact Day. We hope that future events will involve more students, as well as faculty, staff and local alums.