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Rebuilding Together is the largest national volunteer home rehabilitation organization in the United States. The local branch, Rebuilding Together Mohawk Valley (RTMV), has been assisting the elderly, physically and mentally disabled, and working poor in the local area since 1997.  Nick Solano ’14 began working with RTMV during his sophomore year and was recently appointed executive director of the local organization.

Eight members of the class of 2016 are getting the chance to change the world for the better as Community Outreach and Opportunity Program (COOP) Service Interns.  The students, all of whom  had outstanding service records while in high school, become interns for local nonprofits during their first two years on the Hill.

On Oct. 4, members of the Hamilton community gathered to learn about social innovation and careers in social entrepreneurship through a panel discussion sponsored by the Levitt Center, the Career Center, and the COOP.

A pizza party and meet and greet was held at the Tolles Pavilion on Oct. 2 for participants in Hamilton’s new “Sidekicks” program.  Sidekicks is a program that pairs Hamilton College students with Clinton elementary school students in grades 1 - 4 in order to establish a long term mentoring relationship between the Hamilton student, his or her sidekick, and the sidekick’s family.

Several members of the Hamilton community read to students at Kernan Elementary School in Utica on Dec. 16 as part of a Community Readers’ Day hosted by the school.

The men and women of Hamilton’s CSI team have some of the most specialized and important skills on campus. They’re not crime scene investigators, though—CSI stands for COOP Service Intern, one of the many service opportunities offered by Hamilton’s Community Opportunity and Outreach Project (COOP). Each year, a half-dozen first-year students join this selective program, which is focused on matching a student with a local non-profit agency for an extended four-semester internship.

Anyone who has participated in one of Hamilton Association for Volunteering Outreach and Charity (HAVOC) days of service knows that the adage “the early bird catches the worm” readily applies to the sign-up process. By 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, volunteers had already begun lining up at tables in the Fillius Events Barn, eager to match themselves with the sites of their choices for HAVOC’s annual Make a Difference Day.

It was an anniversary of sorts. To COOP director Amy James, 2011 marks the year that every class of Hamilton students has participated in Hamilton Serves. The Orientation program began in 2008 and takes the students to volunteer at local non-profit agencies for the morning before classes start.

The fourth annual Hamilton Serves took place on Wednesday, Aug. 24, with the entire first-year class and new transfer students going out to volunteer at 61 community organizations. Amy James, COOP director, noted this year was a milestone as now “every student on campus will have gone through the program.”

Hamilton College will celebrate the legacy of labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez with volunteer projects and campus events from March 30 through April 2. Chavez led the non-violent movement for farmworkers’ rights, a movement that extended beyond the fields and into cities and towns across the nation, and helped found the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW).