Once again, the Law, Societies, and Justice program assembled a group of current students, alumni, and faculty together for a “Day of Service” event, the second this year. After a successful service day at the Morrison building with the Downtown Emergency Services Center in February, the LSJ program came together for a day of landscaping and yard work at the Ryther, an organization committed to providing children and teens mental health and addiction treatment.
Ryther is located in North Seattle and provides behavioral health services and addiction treatment to children and their families through both in-patient and counseling services. The ten-acre Ryther campus provides children with abundant space to play, exercise, and build social skills through interacting with the other kids, and the better maintained the area is the better each child’s experience can be. With such a large campus, Ryther has an enormous need for volunteers and the LSJ alumni association was excited that after months of organizing and waiting forspring weather that the day of work finally came together.
Jill Anderson ’08, one of the event’s key organizers, said, “We’ve been planning the Ryther event since Summer 2013. Our alumni group was really interested in volunteering at the organization but the first available time was April 2014, mostly due to weather restrictions. We were so happy when we finally were able to get our hands dirty and help out beautifying the campus. Working with Sherri, the outreach coordinator was awesome, she was very good about communicating expectations and was proactive on all levels. They even had a cool “UW” sign for us the day we arrived.”
Jill also said that, “being connected to the LSJ program is a no brainer for me at this point. I think it is really important to stay connected to your University community and our alumni group is so special. The program has not only allowed us to maintain our friendships with previous students, but is also a great way for us to meet the next generation of LSJ students and to keep our connections growing!”
Current LSJ senior Marcelina DesChamps expressed her appreciation for the event, saying, “The course work and opportunities in LSJ continue to open up new doors to bodies of information I’d never known or considered before. Attending events like the Day of Service reminds me of the endless opportunities I have to apply what I’ve learned in LSJ to a meaningful career.”
Marcelina also said, “I think LSJ events like this are awesome. As a busy college student, it can be hard to get to know organizations around town that may be related to my field. The service day at Ryther gave me a chance to become familiar with a great local organization.” She also noted that she enjoyed a time to socialize afterwards. “Happy hour was a great time to welcome new LSJ majors, chat with LSJ grads about their experiences, and hang out with LSJ staff,” she said. “Days like this one make me so grateful to be an LSJ student.”
The LSJ program was tremendously excited to lend a helping hand to such a fantastic organization like Ryther and helps provide a nice place for their kids to enjoy. The program would like to thank everyone who was able to donate their time and help such a worthy cause.
This article was written by Chase Beauclair.