Volunteers in the News

Knox College Selected for Community Service Award
For the second consecutive year, Knox College has been named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, which is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for commitment to community service. The Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that runs AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and Learn and Serve America, administers the Honor Roll program. Full story

Group Cleans Up Galesburg Neighborhood
(May 30, 2009) A group of Galesburg residents got together Saturday to clean up what one resident says is a vastly different neighborhood than it was a year ago. Residents from inside and out of the area around Pearl and East South Streets cleaned up and planted trees in the area, an activity put on by the Neighborhood Watch area there that's no more than a year old.... Also helping in the cleanup were a group of Knox College students who are being credited with coming up with the idea for the tree-planting... Full story

Volunteers take action to spruce up homes
(May 2, 2009) Men, women, teens and children worked on houses on Baird Ave. and on Losey St. on Saturday as part of Christmas in Action of Galesburg... Knox College students Abby Harms, Topeka, Kan., and Effie Fayer, North Brook, were prepared to get their hands dirty Saturday. Both felt the need to give back to the community. "I get satisfaction in helping people in need," Harms said. "I just think it is an important thing to do." ... Full story

Build on clean up efforts at Cedar Creek
(April 30, 2009) Last weekend, a group of volunteers organized by the Galesburg Area Chamber of Commerce [helped clean] a portion of Cedar Creek at the west edge of Galesburg. ... Residents from the nearby McKnight Street housing project and the community at large, Knox College students, members of Leadership Greater Galesburg Class XVI and the chamber made it a genuine community collaboration. ... Full story

Volunteers build new playground at Prairieland
(April 27, 2009) Threatening rain clouds could not dampen the spirit of community at Prairieland Apartments Saturday as Knox students, residents and volunteers came together to build a new playground for local children...about 70 children live in the complex, which means the new playground will get plenty of use. ... Full story

Urban gardens take root
(April 11, 2009) An overgrown area behind the house in the 400 block of West South Street will be one of six community garden plots started this year by a group called Galesburg Neighborhood Gardeners. Community gardens have previously been established near both Cooke School and Knox College. The planning models for those gardens will be used for the new ones.... Several Knox College students assisted with the clean-up Saturday. Tanya Novotnak learned about the program from her involvement with The Center, a community-based group in Galesburg. "This is something I really wanted to do," Novotnak said. "Although it is more about the good it will do in neighborhoods and the people who work together on the project." Full story

Knox team helps with Easter egg hunt
(March 30, 2009) Hundreds of families turned out Sunday afternoon for the 21st annual Easter egg hunt. Helping set up the eggs and hand out candy to participants were members of the Knox College football team. The football team has helped with the Easter egg hunt for three years. The team, says coach Andy Gibbons, participates in at least three community service projects each year. "I tell the guys they're very lucky to be going to college and playing football," Gibbons said. "We want to give back and help out the community."... Full story

Knox women reach out to teens
(March 3, 2009) Nine women at Knox College hope a new group will bring about positive change effected by teen girls. "Be the Change," a group developed by Knox junior Sarah Miller of Phoenix, aims to bring together Knox women and girls in Galesburg-area high schools to create a place where teens can discuss things that are bothering them... Full story

Brisk weather makes plunge ‘shocking'
(March 2, 2009) 200-plus people braved a 15-degree wind chill and jumped into Lake Storey as part of the annual Law Enforcement Torch Run Polar Plunge... Both Knox and Monmouth colleges were well represented. Special prizes were up for grabs as the two schools brought their rivalry to the lake side for a good cause... Cassandra Milleville, a junior at Knox and a member of Tri Delta sorority, said ... [that] almost every fraternity and sorority from Knox had a team in the plunge... One Knox fraternity team brought a football when it made its run. Full story

Kappa Kappa Gamma raises funds for Tanzania
(Feb. 16, 2009) On the evening of October 24th, 2008 the ladies of the Eta Kappa chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, with other fraternities and sororities at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, raised a total of $1,856.15 was to support Girl Effect through BRAC programs for Safe Spaces and Small Loans for Teenage Girls in Tanzania... Kappa Kappa Gamma highly values philanthropic endeavors and felt a special connection to this particular cause not only as women, but also from the personal experiences of its members. Emily Putnum's (2010) travels in Uganda inspired the first Uganda Initiative event in 2007. Another member, Emily Jensen (2008) studied abroad in Tanzania in 2007... Full story

Organizers hope to raise $28,000 for Special Olympics
(Feb. 16, 2009) Organizers of an annual fundraiser are hoping to raise more than $28,000 to benefit the Illinois Special Olympics.... So far, 55 Knox College plungers are registered and 15 from the Monmouth College Blue Key Honor Society are committed. In the photo, Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers at Knox College enter the icy waters of Lake Storey during Polar Plunge 2008. The fraternity raised the most donations of any group in 2008... Full story

Company, students help transform warehouse to theatre
(Jan. 27, 2009) There was plenty of activity Saturday at Prairie Players Civic Theatre's new quarters, 160 S. Seminary St. The sounds were not those of actors speaking lines but rather the hammering of nails, the whine of circular saws and other construction noises as employees of Trillium Dell Timberworks began building a 120-seat theatrical space... Rick Collins said six or seven employees from his company, along with students from Knox College, faced a fairly routine task... Trillium Dell began building a 47-foot-long wooden truss so that three posts supporting the second-story floor can be removed... Full story

Housing authority opens computer lab
(Dec. 13, 2008) Computers skills are vital for most people looking for a job these days. Job openings are listed online and applications often can be submitted only online as well. These are some reasons officials are excited about a new computer lab in the Knox County Housing Authority's Iowa Avenue complex... Nishq Mody, director of the lab, said some computers are used, as a way to stretch the $300,000, three-year grant the Knox County Housing Authority received from Neighborhood Networks to equip and open the lab... "We connected with Knox College and Carl Sandburg College..." Full story

Living inside the Knox Bubble
(Nov. 19, 2008) There is the Knox world, but then there is the real world of Galesburg. Vicky Sibley works in the office of student development [at Knox, and] went to Knox in the 1970s. Since then she has seen improvement in the Galesburg-Knox relationship. "Now Knox does more charitable things for the community such as Boys and Girls Club. I hope this dispels some of the preconceived notions" [that Knox and Galesburg have about each other]... Full story

Thanks for helping with CROP Walk
(Oct. 3, 2008) It was a great day for the annual Galesburg CROP Hunger Walk held on Sunday, Sept. 28! I want to thank all the churches and service organizations, their recruiters, walkers, and sponsors; the volunteers from Knox College and the Knox County Nursing Home... Full story

Walkers, donors deserve our appreciation
(Sept. 30, 2008) More than 200 Galesburg folks ... young and old and middle-age, from a number of churches and service organizations, Knox College students and retired teachers, raised $12,141 to fight hunger around the world and right here in Galesburg... in the annual CROP Hunger Walk on Sunday... Full story

Cooke to college in a day
(May 7, 2008) Seventeen Cooke Elementary School students went to college Tuesday afternoon... Leeanne Scherpe's class of second-grade children went to meet with their mentors, 10 Knox College students from across the campus. Those 10 students have been working, one-on-one, with 10 of Scherpe's students in a new after-school mentoring program... "One of the goals of the Center for Community Service is to interact with at least every school, have something going on with every school in (Galesburg) District 205," said Kathleen Ridlon, director of the Center for Community Service. So, when Scherpe approached her with the idea, Ridlon jumped on board and found students wanting to help... Full story

Home improvement, volunteer style
(April 26, 2008) A crisp, cool spring morning did not keep more than 40 volunteers from Lincoln Street on Saturday for the annual Christmas in Action weekend... Work includes a new deck with a wheelchair ramp, painting, replacing sills and siding, foundation repair, repainting window trims and glazing windows if necessary, replacing and repairing gutters and rebuilding a basement entry way... The volunteers came from a variety of different places, including a number of students from Galesburg High School, Knox College and Carl Sandburg College... Full story

Local walkers' efforts to fight hunger worldwide
(Sept. 30, 2008) Sunday's CROP Hunger Walk ... is an interfaith community effort to help end hunger in the Galesburg community and worldwide. Last year, 65 CROP walkers representing nine churches, the Galesburg Rescue Mission and students, faculty and staff from Knox College raised $7,326. Twenty-five percent of the funds raised in Galesburg will be divided between the Rescue Mission, Salvation Army and FISH Food Pantry... Full story

Galesburg CROP Hunger Walk
(Sept. 11, 2008) The Galesburg CROP Hunger Walk has set a goal of 100 walkers and hopes to raise $9,231.30 to help stop hunger in this community and around the world through selfhelp development initiatives... Last year, 65 CROP Hunger Walkers representing nine churches, Galesburg Rescue Mission and Knox College raised over $7,000 in the Galesburg CROP Hunger Walk... Full story

Grant for Community Services Center
(July 28, 2005) Knox College's new Center for Community Service, created to expand and coordinate volunteer activities by Knox students in the Galesburg area, has received a start-up grant from the Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation of California.