G eorgia College & State University’s Class of 2027 served 3,000 hours during this year’s GCSU Gives Day—Aug. 19—with an estimated $101,760 in economic impact on the local community. 

Approximately 1,500 first-year students clocked in community service hours—playing games with residents at the Georgia War Veterans Home; leading activities and games for kids during the Life Enrichment Center’s “End of Summer Celebration;” making blankets for the Linus Project; painting baseboards, window trim and a porch for Milledgeville Cares; and removing weeds, tires and trash at Oconee River Greenway.

Psychology major Kadima Rogers of Augusta, Georgia, volunteered by playing games with veterans at the Georgia War Veteran’s Home. 

“People in assisted living don’t get many visitors, so, it’s nice to be a smiling face they get to see,” Rogers said. “I think this experience has grounded me a little more. It makes me feel humble and really appreciate the situation I’m in.” 

Psychology and Spanish major Kylie Gregg of Fayetteville, Georgia, was excited to help her Georgia College peers. She was the “Vanna White” of bingo at the Georgia War Veteran’s Home. 

“Being able to do something like this is really important. It helps the community and builds our own community at GCSU,” Gregg said. “I have a lot of personal respect for veterans. I think this would be something I could come back to do myself that I wouldn’t otherwise have known about before GCSU Gives Day.”

Braving the heat while working outdoors, marketing major Chance Phillips from Canton, Georgia, said it's important for first-year students to volunteer in the community beyond campus. He demonstrated a stamping technique to children at the Life Enrichment Center’s Urban Arts Village.

“It's really fun right now, and I'm enjoying it,” he said. “I think I’d like to continue doing something like this in my career. More than anything else, I’d rather be meeting others and giving back to help out as many people as I can.”

Alumnae benefitted from the experience, as well including Joan Deremer Alford, ’78, Jane Williams Boggus, ’76, Anresa Stevens Davis, ’75, Carrigan Flotlin, ’19, ’20, Faith Thomas, ’76, all volunteered at GCSU Gives Day. 

Davis, a GCSU Foundation trustee and site leader, hopes students will understand their relationship with the community and the community’s relationship with the university.

“This is where each student’s life of service begins,” Davis said. “These students are going to live, work and shop in Milledgeville. But they're also going to study in the community.”

“It's really important for them to understand that from this day forward, they'll have their work community and their greater community,” she said. “Gives Day is where they’ll learn how to be that complete citizen—a good co-worker and steward of the world around them.”

She wants students to know their four years are going to fly by, and “it's the beginning of four magical years.”

“I hope they’ll break the ice and make new friends as a result of GCSU Gives Day,” Davis said. “And I hope that it's going to spawn interest for them to go back and do service hours, simply because it feels right.”

GCSU Gives Day started in 2018. Carrigan Flotlin, ’19, ’20, recalls the first one well. 

She was a student back then, and was on the GIVE Center team that organized the first service day. She bounced around Milledgeville, volunteering at various organizations and doing social media for the GIVE Center. When she came upon the Life Enrichment Center—the place captured her heart.

“Because of that Gives Day experience and my interactions with LEC adults and the director who I became friends with, made me a better teacher,” Flotlin said. “I've always known that no matter how different you are, you're still a person. Getting to see that in the real world made me realize we have to help one another.”

Flotlin found participating in GC Gives Day in 2018 to be an “amazing experience.” She was on the GIVE Center team that helped put the first one together.

“This opportunity gave me the chance to see the student impact in the Milledgeville community through a different lens,” Flotlin said. “It’s exciting to see how far Gives Day has come since the very first one, and I'm honored I’m still able to participate.”

“This day gives Georgia College’s incoming freshman class the chance to start off on the right foot,” Flotlin said, “and find ways they can make a difference in their short time here.”