LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - During the 2008-2009 academic year, the monetary value of Lock Haven University student volunteerism to Clinton County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was $1,147,724.25. This calculation is based on value estimates from the Independent Sector (www.independentsector.org), a nonpartisan leadership coalition of over 600 organizations devoted to community service.

According to Anne-Marie Turnage, director of LHU’s MountainServe Center for Global Citizenship, 3,445 LHU students engaged in service and service-learning during 2008-2009, performing 56,653.05 hours of service.

Turnage noted that “Lock Haven University is committed to service-learning and civic engagement.” She added, “ I am honored to work with students and faculty who are so dedicated to serving others here in Clinton County as well as other parts of the nation and the world.”

Locally, LHU students tutored and mentored 2,449 youth; removed 2.5 tons of debris from streambeds and illegal dumpsites, served 25 families in crisis during the winter holiday season, painted 30 trashcans for downtown Lock Haven, provided clinical health outreach to 20 communities in Pennsylvania, mentored 120 elderly people at Susqueview, raised funds for Jersey Shore Citizen’s Hose Company by enacting 72 horror scenes for a Haunted hayride, and assisted in the set-up and closing down of the season for the Millbrook Playhouse. In addition, they collected approximately 250 books and raised $250 for literacy; collected 3,131 canned goods, 626,160 grains of rice and $81 for Hunger Relief; and provided disaster relief and rebuilding efforts to 3 communities along the Gulf Coast in Mississippi.

Through MountainServe’s four alternative spring break service trips, students were sent to Camp Coast Care in Long Beach Mississippi; the David School in David, Kentucky; and the Clinical Health Outreach and Youth Mentoring Development at the Ait Lekkak Association for Development at Ait Lekkak, Morocco as well as Clinical health Outreach in Zacatecas, Mexico, which included Physician Assistant students and Nursing students in Dr. Amy Way’s study abroad course at the Clearfield campus.

Turnage said that “The MountainServe Center for Global Citizenship engages students in opportunities that allow them to leave the university with better communication and problem-solving skill, to be more informed and engaged citizens, and to be better prepared to perform in, as well as contribute to, our global society.”

MountainServe Community Service continues to be recognized for its outstanding contributions to the community by being named for 2007-2008 to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service to America’s communities. This was the third consecutive year that MountainServe achieved this honor.