Wow - January already? This year is flying by. The students are having their first day of classes here at Framingham State for the spring semester and things are just beginning to get really busy.

The months of November and December seem to have been blended together in my head for some reason, most likely because I was out of the office most of the month of December for our Early Service Training (aka EST) and following that, our holiday break. I thoroughly enjoyed myself at EST in December. The entire MACC*VISTA family stayed together at the Essex Conference Center in Essex, MA for most of the week of the 8th. It was really great to be able to reconnect with many of the VISTAs that I don't get to see on a regular basis, and also to get to spend more time with even the VISTAs I have become pretty close with. The time out of the office to sort of reinvigorate our sense of purpose was also excellent. I very much enjoyed the discussions and insight brought about by all of the workshops that we had as well as just the really valuable conversations I had with my fellow VISTAs during downtime.

I'll even provide for you a cute photo of all of us. Don't ask me why we've all got our hands in the air like that, I really have no idea.

More on the FSC front, all the way back in November the United Way and my office (Student Involvement) co-sponsored a day of service. We had about 20 student volunteers and we visited about 4 different houses in the Framingham & Natick areas raking leaves for homebound elderly people. We were nervous because the original date that we were supposed to hold this event was rained out, so we were unsure if many of our volunteers would come back for the rain date - and many of them did! We had a great turn out and though it was a long, very cold, day all of the students were in great spirits throughout the entire thing and at the end went home smiling.

This was the first coordinated day of volunteering that we did with the United Way, with whom we have a partnership that involves getting students more involved in the local community. Many of the students that came belonged to clubs that are service oriented, but many of them were pretty new to the volunteering scene. It was a really great experience. We even made it to the local newspaper, very exciting!

Here are a few photos of my students hard at work. I assure you that I, too, worked diligently...but someone had to take the photos!

Til next time,

Dana