Tomorrow's first ever DarCORPS -- the Dartmouth Community OutReach ProjectS -- will send more than 600 members of the Dartmouth community into the Upper Valley for a day-long effort of volunteer service.
Come rain or shine, Dartmouth students, staff and faculty volunteers will visit the elderly, read to children, do gardening work, paint, clean, work with the Special Olympics, and engage in a lot of other volunteer activities, according to DarCORPS chair Rex Morey '99.
More than 50 non-profit agencies, including Head Start, AIDS Quilt, Glencliff Home for the Elderly, Ray Elementary School and the Humane Society, will be facilitating the volunteer work taking place at the project sites.
"We want to help serve some of the needs of the Upper Valley ... [and] introduce people to community service so they'll enjoy it," Morey said.
Morey said Dean of the College Lee Pelton, who will "go out and paint and rake" with other volunteers this Saturday, plans on making DarCORPS an annual event.
The day opens tomorrow at the Bema, and students will be bused to the sites where they will work from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers will return to the Bema for a barbeque and a speech by Pelton at the day's end.
WFRD-FM, "99 Rock," will broadcast from the Bema throughout the day, Morey said.
Morey said the DarCORPS committee originally intended to use 300 volunteers but increased funding in order to accommodate several hundred more.
Roughly $10,000 was raised to fund the event, he said.
The Bildner Foundation, the Lahey Clinic and Blood's Catering each donated over $1,000.
Advance Transit, a Lebanon-based transportation company, will supply transportation for all volunteers, charging DarCORPS only for the price of gas, Morey said. Advance Transit also mapped out all the routes between the Bema and the work sites, he said.
Morey said efforts to create a DarCORPS day began last fall, when he and several other students first came together to discuss the idea.
