The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/?s=into+the+streets)
Student climate activists protested for four hours on Feb. 13 — staging a “wedding” and blocking traffic — urging Cornell to divest from fossil fuels. The protests continued on Feb. 19, when protestors blocked traffic again.
On Oct. 27, over 500 Cornell students and faculty will step out into Ithaca and throughout Tompkins County to participate in the 27th annual Into the Streets, Cornell’s largest community service event.
Approximately 550 Cornell students — 75 student teams and 50 individual volunteers — participated in community service projects, ranging from cleaning playrooms at the Ithaca Community Childcare Center to clearing up trails at the local YMCA.
“We had a lot of issues because of the rain, unfortunately,” Zerbib said. “[Saturday] was not the best of days, and unfortunately a lot of the projects are outside, because that’s the type of work a lot of agencies need help with. They just don’t have the money or the resources to do any of that.”
By ANIKA SETHY
Last weekend, over 1,200 students volunteered at the 23rd annual Into the Streets, a number that caused registration for the community service program to end early due to a surplus of students interested in participating in it. Jill Gold ’17 gives two student volunteers t-shirts as part of the 2014 Into the Streets community service program Saturday.
By NABIHA KESHWANI
Registering more than 1,300 students, Into the Streets — an annual event dedicated to volunteerism in the Ithaca community — saw the largest turnout of its 22-year history in October. Into the Streets is a chance for Cornell students to help change the stereotype of college students only caring about partying and drinking, Leslyn McBean, deputy director of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, said at the event’s launch. Students from across the University, including members of the Greek community, casts from Risley Theater productions and freshman dorms, headed to downtown Ithaca on Oct. 25 and 26 to work on projects together. They joined fellow Into the Streets volunteers to help dozens of agencies, including the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, East Ithaca Preschool, the Salvation Army and the Cancer Resource Center.
More than 1,500 Cornell students prepared meals for the homeless, raked leaves and distributed environmentally-friendly light bulbs Friday and Saturday as part of the 19th annual Into the Streets days of service. This was the first year that the event was expanded to two days, and Into the Streets saw a record 15-percent increase in turnout from the previous year, according to its president, Mara Perman ’11.Students volunteered for 65 non-profit agencies across the greater Ithaca area, such as the Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Greater Ithaca Activities Center and the Salvation Army.The importance of Into the Streets is that “it helps strengthen the relationship between Cornell and the surrounding community; it’s a recognition that students volunteer,” Perman said.The event was organized by a student executive board in conjunction with the Cornell Public Service Center. Perman described the preparations for Into the Streets as “recruiting students on campus to volunteer … [and] then pair them up with non-profit organizations in the Ithaca area.”More than a hundred student teams signed up for the event. “Participants ranged from varsity sports teams to Greek houses to multicultural organizations — a wide array of student organizations,” Perman said.Into the Streets’ biggest undertaking was with the Cornell Cooperative Extension, the University’s primary environmental outreach arm. Around 250 students canvassed door-to-door as part of the “Lighten Up Tompkins” project, distributing compact fluorescent light bulbs and packets of information to over 3,500 Ithaca households.
Despite the rain, students woke up early this Saturday for Cornell’s 17th annual Into the Streets day, which brought students from various groups on campus to service the Ithaca community. The event was the largest yet, with over 1,200 students signed up to volunteer to go out and get dirty.
With President David Skorton as the event’s keynote speaker, students packed into Barton Hall to be assigned their tasks, organize their teams and listen to the speakers.
“Overall the mood was a very positive one,” Nicole Goodkind ’11 said. “Everyone seemed really excited to help out.”
Over 1,200 Cornell students found themselves doing everything from cleaning up Collegetown to harvesting carrots Saturday as Into the Streets celebrated its 16th annual day of service in Ithaca. Organized into approximately 140 student-led teams, volunteers made their way to over 60 Ithaca-area agencies to lend a much-appreciated hand.
The day began with an 11 a.m. kickoff in Barton Hall, where groups had a chance to mingle and have lunch before their projects began. While the 1,268 registered volunteers, a substantial increase from the 500 students in 2005, represented a wide variety of Cornell clubs and organizations, volunteers were motivated by a similar interest in community service.
Stel Whitehead, program director for the Southside Community Center, was more than grateful to have 16 Cornell students help her sort, stack and database books at her workplace this past Saturday.