Several weeks ago, students' e-mail inboxes began to fill with information about signing up to volunteer for Saturday's Common Good Day, but event director and Common Good Day fellow Jessica Horstkotte '08 has been looking forward to the event since the end of the previous school year.
Having worked with other Community Service Resource Center (CSRC) projects during her time at Bowdoin, Horstkotte jumped at the opportunity to become more involved and gain valuable work experience by being a Common Good Day fellow.
Horstkotte began planning in June, when she met with the CSRC to talk about the beginnings of Common Good Day. By the end of June and the beginning of July, she was meeting with various people on campus and contacting over 150 community partners, including Tedford Shelter, ArtVan, and the Ronald McDonald House about sponsoring projects.
Despite taking on a seemingly daunting project, Horstkotte enjoyed the process from its inception.
"I've really enjoyed taking on a project like this. I had direction as to what needed to be done, but most of it has been up to me to make it happen," she said. "It's certainly been a learning experience for me."
More recently, Horstkotte has been organizing various details to make sure Saturday runs smoothly. In addition to compiling organizational folders for each project and seeing that van transportation is arranged, Horstkotte has been busy attending to more last-minute details. She spent the last week redistributing projects due to unforeseen circumstances; one project had to be cancelled because the organization was not going to have a supervisor.
"There has been a lot of last-minute shuffling," Horstkotte said. "It's definitely been tough to turn off Common Good Day for a little bit and concentrate on my schoolwork."
Despite this hectic schedule, Horstkotte remains optimistic about Saturday's events. She also notes how Common Good Day will not come to a conclusion at the end of Saturday. For many, volunteering experiences on Common Good Day will serve as a springboard to further involvement in the community.
"I see [Common Good Day] as an opportunity for first years and sophomores to get to know local organizations, so then they can come in later and get involved even more," she said. "It has been the most rewarding to recognize that students on campus are involved in just about anything and everything."