Campus Community Campaign Column

Stories by Susan Burton
Campaign Communications Officer

CCC volunteers make it happen

The Campus Community Campaign Volunteer Executive Pictured are, from front row to back row, left to right: Front Row: Colleen Romuld, Joanne Borys, Melana Soroka, Maria Jochmaring (co-chair). Second Row: Janelle Hutchinson, Mary MacDonald, Kate Hodgson, Merry Beazely (co-chair). Third Row: Vera Pezer (co-chair), Sam Robinson, Gord McCalla, Bev Allen. Fourth Row: Ralph Hildebrandt, Merv Dahl, Doug Thorpe, Jack Dart. Back Row: Bob Hickie (co-chair). Missing: Lyle Sanderson, Mel Hosain, Ron Fritz, Lynn Guina, Kari Fehr, Joe Garcea, Mary Ellen Cox, Fazal Malik, Arlis McQuarrie, Heather Lukey.

About 5,300 people make up the University of Saskatchewan community. That's almost equal to the entire population of Humboldt. Trying to represent the interests of so many current and past employees isn't easy, but it's one of the goals of the Campus Community Campaign (CCC). That's why there are 30 representatives on the CCC Executive Council. Each College and Administrative Unit is represented by a volunteer executive member. They work alongside the campaign co-chairs who represent faculty, CUPE staff, ASPA staff, retirees, and both undergraduate and graduate students.

Ron Fritz is one of the Volunteer Executive Council members. He believes in giving. As Associate Dean of Law, Fritz deals with scholarships and accounts, so he sees how private support can make a difference. "It's not giving to the University, or letting the government off the hook - it's giving to the students of the future," he says.

Along with providing direction for the Campus Community Campaign, the Executive Council volunteers worked with their Deans or supervisors to come up with the campaign projects for their areas. Those projects are listed on the CCC website at www.usask.ca/campuscampaign/projects

While some Executive Council volunteers are approaching their co-workers to give to the CCC, most are recruiting volunteers to help in this task. For some, like Colleen Romuld, the representative from the College of Agriculture, getting volunteers lined up is a very big job. She's recruited 20 volunteers and is still working at getting another 10. Romuld says organizational skills are particularly important when doing this kind of volunteer work. "There's always more you could be doing, but there's only so much time in the day," she says.

The ultimate goal of the Campus Community Campaign is 100% participation. Which makes the work of the Executive Council volunteers and all the other volunteers they recruit, particularly important. Their personal commitment of resources, time and talent, is inspiring others to give and will ultimately determine the success of the Thinking the World of Our University Campaign.