A total of 1,600 University and community volunteers registered to participate in the annual Service Raleigh event. They began the day with a celebration on the NC State campus, where Raleigh City Councilmember Russ Stephenson and NC State Student Body President Andy Walsh delivered opening remarks.

Volunteers then took part in 60 service projects with partner organizations throughout the greater Raleigh area. Projects ran the gamut, from delivering donated food to recipient agencies with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle to distributing brochures to promote awareness of the Greater Carolinas Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s upcoming fundraising events. NC State’s Waste Reduction and Recycling program partnered with Service Raleigh for its fourth annual Rubbage Ride, during which 150 volunteers biked around campus and the surrounding area collecting litter.

Service Raleigh 2013 Co-Chairs Nancy Thai ‘14, Meera Venkataraman ‘14, and Jacob Robbins ‘15 welcomed Raleigh City Councilmember Russ Stephenson, keynote speaker at the event kickoff.

Service Raleigh began in 1998 as a collaborative project between Park Scholarships and Student Government. The event has grown to become the largest student-coordinated service endeavor in the Triangle area. The 2013 event was led by student co-chairs Jacob Robbins ‘15, Nancy Thai ‘14, and Meera Venkataraman ‘14, along with a dozen committee heads and countless committee members.

“I have worked with Service Raleigh over the past eight years on various city park projects and this year was the best ever,” says Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department Resource Development Manager Cindy Trumbower. “We were so pleased to have over 500 students at 16 different park locations who accomplished so much.”

Events like the Krispy Kreme Challenge, Service NC State, and Service Raleigh are prime examples of the Wolfpack’s commitment to serving others. This commitment was recently recognized when NC State was named to the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction. Honor Roll recipients were announced at the American Council on Education’s 95th Annual Meeting Leading Change on March 4, 2013, in Washington, D.C.