Salina, KS— Faculty, support staff and administration of Kansas State University Salina Aerospace and Technology Campus recently took part in a volunteering campaign at different Salina organizations with the goal of improving the community.
The annual Fall Kickoff is the campus’s unofficial start of the new school year before students return. At the Aug. 15 event, employees for the university split up into teams and completed several spruce-up projects at Salina-community organizations.
“The K-State Salina campus has always focused on involvement within the Salina community,” said K-State Salina CEO and Dean Alysia Starkey. “As we continue to grow in our campus’s recent rebranding into the Aerospace and Technology campus, we want to take an even bigger role in our home community. Salina is a wonderful home to our campus with more than 50 years of support. Our goal is to go above and beyond all that Salina has given to our campus and support the community that assists us in so many ways.”
As part of the effort, volunteers visited nine different Salina organizations. Their work included painting and cleaning at Ashby House, playing board games with residents at Eaglecrest Retirement Community, creating and packing homework packets for pre-school age students Heartland Early Education, baking and cleaning at Rebecca A. Morrison House, assisting at the Salina Animal Shelter and the Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank, pulling weeds and filling edges of cart paths at Salina Municipal Golf Course, organizing and cleaning the Salina Rescue Mission and moving items into a warehouse for Salina Shares.
K-State Salina students, faculty and staff will continue emphasizing volunteering and community involvement as a part of the 2022-2023 school year. After returning to campus for the fall semester, some K-State Salina students will assist Rolling Hills Zoo with a service project. Service to the Salina region will take many forms over the coming school year to provide faculty, staff and students to engage with their passion points and meet the needs of the area.