Service has always been a large part of what makes up Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMUoHP). One of RMUoHP’s core values is service, “The University promotes service to the community, healthcare, and education.” While the University strives to always have a culture and spirit of service year round, such as through our two pro bono clinics (Community Rehabilitation Clinic and Center for Communication Disorders), this time of year RMUoHP likes to partner up with local and international holiday service learning initiatives as well.
This year, for example, our Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students set up a food drive with Community Action Services that was headed by DPT 11 student Gina DeCesare. In an encouraging email from DeCesare, she stated, “During this holiday season, help us become leaders of change in our community as we provide food and basic hygiene products to those less fortunate. From December 3rd to 17th, please bring in food or hygiene products and place them in the collection containers throughout Building 3. Our goal is to reach 400lbs in donations!” The items that students, employees, and faculty were encouraged to bring in and donate were: wet goods, canned items, snacks, cleaning supplies, and hygiene products.
In the spirit of service and with consideration for our educational mission, the Learning Resource Center is promoting literacy through a children’s book drive for libraries in New Orleans and Botswana (Africa). This project lasts beyond the holiday season and is a project in which we are proud to participate. A few of the items that they are hoping to gather are new or gently used preschool to 4th-grade reading level books and $500 to cover shipping costs to New Orleans and Botswana. Collection boxes are at the reception desks on campus and donations can be made online at https://rmufoundation.org/affect-healthcare-change/ (Select a Fund: Learning Resource Center). Also, if you are not sure what books to donate, check out a list of suggestions here: https://lrc.rmuohp.edu/african-library-project-resources/. The overall goal is to collect 1,000 books by March 15th, 2019!
Overall, we are very proud to say that here at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions we truly care about serving our community – and the world! There are many aspects of service that our university strives to embody, and this holiday season provides even more opportunities to serve. However, we strive to demonstrate our core values all year through. If you are interested in joining us in any of the service opportunities in which we participate, check out our service page here.
