Inaugural Forum – November 2013
Discussion with students and non-profits showed that students needed community service hours and non-profits needed volunteers, but there was no easy means for one to find the other.
This led to the first annual Community Service Forum sponsored by The Community Roundtable, held at the Bloomingdale High School cafeteria.
Over 30 non-profits (Contact List 2013) came to the event armed with handouts, information and the hope that they would meet with students eager to serve.
The event became a bigger success than we anticipated. Over 350 students, many escorted by eager parents, filled the cafeteria. The attendee line led out the front door to the over filled parking lot. Because of the large crowd, several non-profits smiled as they “complained” that they ran short of handouts.
After the event, The Community Roundtable received several congratulatory emails by both student attendees and non-profits . One non-profit created this wonderful large (8.5 x 11″) note of thanks: CSF Tennis is Fun Thanks
Life Path Hospice was one of the attending non-profits and shared their success with us via email:
Hello! I just wanted to tell you that since the April Community Service Forum Event event at Newsome High School, I have gotten a large number of teens go through orientation to start working at the thrift store – maybe at least 15 and the calls keep coming. I am contacting my ad rep at the newspaper to see if they could do a story. I think running an article would help more kids in the Brandon area know what opportunities are out there.
Thanks CherylAnn
The 2016 event was held at Brandon High School
The Community Roundtable assisted over two dozen local charities and 400 students in one evening!
The Roundtable gives a big THANK YOU to Brandon High School Principal Jennifer Sparano for supporting the Community Service Forum in September. This event provides an opportunity for students to meet Brandon charities. As high-schoolers research college scholarships, which require volunteer service hours, they discover the numerous local non-profits needing support. The outcome was fantastic!
The non-profits explained their mission to the students and their parents. After thinking about the charities’ goals, students can choose something of interest, which will ignite the spark to become a life-long volunteer. So many attended the Community Service Forum that many charities ran out of hand outs.A special thanks to the JROTC team, as they did most of the heavy lifting, helping charities carry their belongings from the parking lot to the gym. At the conclusion of the evening, they happily helped with breakdown and returned the belongings to vehicles, even though it was raining.The next Community Service Forum will take place in April, 2017.
The Community Roundtable offers its thanks to all non-profits and other attendees for making this event a big success.
