On August 20th, 900 incoming Mines students completed over 1,000 hours of community service at more than 25 locations around the Golden community. This first annual “Day of Service” was implemented and organized by Mines senior and Lead Peer Mentor, Dana Steiner. In October, Steiner was awarded with the first-ever Mayor’s Goldmine Award for Excellence for her extensive work in bringing Mines and the Golden community together.
“I think it’s really important to highlight how Golden helps Mines and Mines helps Golden,” Steiner explained. “As students, it’s really important to realize our impact on the community. We have to decide whether we want it to be a positive one or a negative one.”
“If you just sit back and do nothing, you’re not going to have a positive impact. We have so much manpower, and that’s why I started this event,” she stated. “We can make a huge, positive impact.” To organize an event of this size, Steiner met with people from all over Golden, including Mayor Sloan, local church leaders, schools, and the Parks & Recreation Department.
Anna Welscott, the Awards Committee member who introduced Steiner at the Mayoral Excellence Awards ceremony, stated, “Dana worked for months to solidify a program that matched each student to a specific project to best utilize their strengths. She facilitated the entire program and successfully introduced the freshman class to our wonderful city and community.”
After the event, Steiner received a flood of calls from Golden community members thanking her for all of the work that had been completed during the Day of Service.
“I love service and I know that it’s really fulfilling,” Steiner explained. “I also know that a lot of other people really like doing service, too. I wanted to introduce the first year students to service immediately when they got to campus, so that they could see that this is something that’s important and that it’s something that aligns with our values at Mines.”
A continual partnership between peer mentors and USG, the Day of Service will continue to be a part of freshman orientation in the future. Over time, the hope is that Mines’ student service within the Golden community will become a tradition.
Steiner explained it best: “Community service in college is just the beginning. We’re all going to end up helping people one way or another. It’s just important that we start now.”
'First Annual Day of Service' has 1 comment
November 14, 2016 @ 8:20 pm Gillian
Congratulations ???? Orediggers! It’s important to give back.