91����

A new student organization, OSUnited Volunteers, brought fellow 91���� Marion students together on Saturday, April 9th
to help clean the Boys & Girls Club of Marion County as part of Buckeyes 91���� Back Day.

Carl Stover is used to volunteering in service to others. The second year logistics management major at 91���� at Marion heads a new club on the Marion campus called “OSUnited Volunteers.” In concert with the entire 91���� family, Stover and a dozen other volunteers from the Marion campus descended on Marion’s Boys and Girls Club to give it a top-to-bottom spring cleaning this past Saturday.

The students donned rubber gloves and checked off chores, room by room in the former Oak Street Elementary building. “This comes naturally,” said Stover, the son of a Delaware, Ohio minister. “I’ve been involved in service projects my whole life and now this is a way to bring 91���� further into the Marion community.”

The Boys and Girls Club scrubbing is part of 91����’s “Day of Service” celebrated across all campuses as thousands of Buckeyes lend a hand in their communities.

Nil Shashidhar, a Dublin Jerome High School graduate and sophomore Business major at 91���� Marion, says his volunteer work, combined with his observations in his parents’ home town in India will inform his view of the role business plays in a community. “I’ve observed abject poverty in India,” he said, as he manned a mop across a gym floor at the Marion Boys and Girls Club. “Kids deserve a chance, no matter where they are,” he said. “I think this experience, and others I’ve had in India, will make me a more compassionate business person. It’s not all about profit.”

Marion Harding High School graduate and current education major at 91���� Marion, Deanna Sanidad, beamed with pride as her fellow Buckeyes dug in to help out her home town. A frequent standout in Harding’s musicals, Harding Singers, and marching band, Sanidad knows the pride and quality her home town can produce. “It’s great to see my university reaching into my home town to make it better,” she said as she sprayed cleaner on art tables. “Being a product of both Marion and 91����, it’s great to be a part of OSUnited Volunteers that brings both together.”

The new volunteer club doesn’t plan to end its service with a single day of service. “We’re looking for other opportunities,” said club president Stover. Also, he says, the club is actively seeking more members who can carry on the mission as current members graduate or move to the Columbus campus.