Students explore altruistic options at fair

This article appeared in the Tampa Tribune on Feb. 4, 2007.

NEW PORT RICHEY - Students attend college fairs to learn about higher education, health fairs to learn about healthy living and career fairs to learn about promising jobs after school.

Wednesday's Community Service Fair at Gulf High School offered something different, though: the chance to make the world better.

"We like for students to see opportunities in their community for volunteers - to expand their horizons and give back to the community," said the school's career specialist, Kathy Trapp, who organized the event along with school media specialist Tina Wallace.

For these students, community service offers practical benefits, too.

Although service hours are not a graduation requirement, they are an important component of the school's planned International Baccalaureate program, an advanced curriculum that encourages students to become lifelong learners and well-rounded, compassionate people, Trapp said.

Community service also helps when applying to colleges or for scholarships, she said.

"Many of the organizations that give scholarships, including Kiwanis and Rotary clubs, are themselves service-oriented," Trapp said.

Along with civic-minded Gulf High students, the service fair also drew alumni who now work with area nonprofit agencies, such as Kristen King, director of community investment at United Way of Pasco County, and Stacey Clegg with Hernando-Pasco Hospice.

"We want to let students know what nonprofits do and how they can help," King said.

Clegg talked with students about volunteer jobs with the hospice, such as office work, delivering patients' meals, recording patients' words for memorial videos and working in the hospice thrift store.

Other agencies on hand included the Kids Wish Network from Holiday, the Life Care Center of New Port Richey, the Center for Independence in Hudson, the Pasco County Parks and Recreation Department, the American Red Cross, the Healthy Start Coalition of Pasco County, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services of Florida, Habitat for Humanity and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Melissa Dudley, the assistant director at the Life Care Center of New Port Richey, said she collected the names of hundreds of students interested in coming by to talk and play games with seniors.

"This is their chance to adopt a grandpa or grandma," she said.

Erica Madson, a 17-year-old senior, said the fair exposed her to all kinds of ways she could help.

"It opened my eyes up to so many places in Pasco that provide community services - places we drive by every day but may not know a lot about," she said. "Whatever a student is interested in, from parks to the police, they could learn about it here.

"I was amazed."