Intermittent rain came down all day Saturday, but 400 volunteers for DarCORPS braved the muddy, wet conditions to perform community service throughout the Upper Valley.
DarCORPS -- the Dartmouth Community OutReach ProjectS -- was a first-time event created last fall as a way to focus attention on needs of the Upper Valley.
Saturday's weather slightly altered the logistics and timetable of the DarCORPS events, but the program "went awesome ... even with the rain," chair Rex Morey '99 said.
The event was sponsored by over 50 non-profit agencies and local businesses, including AIDS Quilt, the Special Olympics, and the Bildner Foundation.
Mia Hockett '99, DarCORPS recruitment chair, said, "I was expecting a lot more to go wrong than did go wrong ... especially considering the rain."
Volunteer Nick Levin '99 said, "Even though it was raining, the [DarCORPS leaders] kept their composure."
At sites throughout the Upper Valley, the miserable conditions seemed to heighten the value of the volunteer experience. Morey said volunteers told him working in the wet and mud made if feel like "they were doing more."
Jill Carey '99, who gardened through the showers at the Listen Center in White River Junction, said "it was a lot of fun. We were all playing around in the mud."
Dan Huddleston '00, who spent the day loading trash into a truck and taking it to a dump, said "it's fun just to get away and not think about normal grind ... it was good for me and whomever I was helping."
Hockett joined volunteers for three hours of field work at a local elementary school. Wielding hacksaws and large industrial-size clippers, they cleared out growth threatening a nearby pond.
"It was like clearing a forest," she said. "It was really great ... pouring rain ... cutting [down] trees, people were excited about it."
The Rockapellas played bingo and cards at Hanover Terrace and at the Kendal retirement community, volunteers had an ice-cream social with the residents.
Also at Kendal, the Dartmouth "Moose" made a special appearance, Morey said.
But the day was not without its mishaps.
Roughly 200 volunteers who committed to the event never showed up, Hockett said.
One group got on the wrong bus and others complained of a long bus-ride or a long wait for the misdirected transportation, Hockett said.
"It was a long day for most people," she said.
But according to a survey distributed by the DarCORPS committee, a number of first-time volunteers said they would consider volunteering in the future, Morey said.
Several students who worked with CHOREcorps -- an agency serving the needs of elderly in the Upper Valley who live on their own -- agreed to return to volunteer at a later time this year, Morey said.
Morey said Dean of the College Lee Pelton has expressed an interest in making DarCORPS an annual event. "We're definitely going to do it again," Morey said.
