From pets to peer ministry, Hillsdale students give back

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From pets to peer ministry, Hillsdale students give back
Hillsdale senior Cecily Parell volunteered 240 hours in the 2015-2016 academic year. Cecily Parell | Courtesy
Hillsdale senior Cecily Parell volunteered 240 hours in the 2015-2016 academic year. Cecily Parell | Courtesy

The average Hillsdale student volunteered just under nine hours during the 2015-2016 school year, but two students — senior Cecily Parell and junior Eddie Reeb — volunteered over 200 hours each.

Through the overarching GOAL Program, students volunteer in 23 different programs around the community. Nearly 600 Hillsdale students volunteered more than 12,000 total hours last year. The five students with the most hours, Parell, Reeb, and three others, volunteered a total of 996.3 hours.

It’s no surprise that Parell and Reeb volunteer respectively with the Humane Society, the organization with the most volunteers, and Young Life, the program with the highest average amount of hours per volunteer.

With 240 total hours, Parell averaged eight per week — almost as many as the average Hillsdale student completed over the course of the entire year.

“I’m happiest when I’m volunteering a lot. My grades are best when I’m volunteering a lot,” Parell said.

As the GOAL program leader of the Humane Society, Parell expanded a program that was on the verge of termination to one of the largest volunteer programs at the school. Participation in the program increased by 1000 percent, from 80 hours to 800 hours.

“I learned from a previous volunteer coordinator the art of making people feel appreciated, and knowing their work matters,” Parell said.

She primarily works on the administrative portion of the program, raising money by selling and hand-delivering cupcakes during parent’s weekend, attending board meetings, and helping out volunteers. But at least a couple times a week, she makes a point to go back to the Humane Society.

“I grew up on a farm, so animals were sort of like a natural place to go for comfort and nostalgic moments,” Parell said.

As a child, Parell would ride her pig Freda May (who was raised in the house) and became the “chicken lady” when she successfully advocated for her family to buy 50 chickens. She jokes that she doesn’t trust people who don’t like animals.

“My dad always told me that animals were put on this earth to teach us how to love better, and that’s something that’s really important to me and something I have a hard time expressing often,” Parell said. “Animals teach you to more properly and kindly love. They’re so innocent and don’t know what they’re doing, they are just doing what they know. People, in a sense, are doing the same, and you love them anyway.”

Senior Alexis Garcia said Parell brought to life a program that should have a natural appeal anyway. After all, it’s working with puppies and kittens, Garcia said. Parell brings animals to campus frequently and partners with other organizations on campus to spread awareness of her program.

“Cecily is a very headstrong, fiery personality,” she said. “She definitely knows what she wants and how to achieve those goals. She’s not going to take no for an answer.”

As GOAL program director, Garcia overlooks not only the humane society, but all 23 of the programs.

“I like seeing all the different passions that people have for different needs in the community. Whether that’s physical needs or mentorship need or educaton needs, there’s something for everyone, and everyone’s passionate about something,” Garcia said.

Part of Garcia’s position entails collecting data on volunteer hours, which she does through the portal. If people didn’t enter their hours in, there would be no way of gathering the data, Garcia said.

With 215 hours, Reeb came in second overall in the hour count as a passionate Young Life volunteer. Reeb visits Hillsdale High School at least three times a week to spend time with students during lunch, attend sporting events, and get to know them on a deeper level.

Hillsdale High School and other high schools involved in the program keep a list with the names of volunteers like Reeb so they can walk freely through the school as long as they’re not disruptive.

“We become friends with the kids and then show them about Christ once we have the right to tell them,” Reeb said. “It’s on their terms too. We’re not pushing, it’s very gentle and at their pace. It’s not just mentorship, but it’s also more of an organized ministry…What I’m trying to do is reach out to kids, make a difference in their lives.”

Young Life features a club, a Bible study, and camps, but the volunteers prioritize one-on-one interaction with the kids to show they care about them, Reeb said.

“I think Hillsdale is such a nice place and it’s so easy to get comfortable, but I think it’s important to reach out to the community,” Reeb said. “There’s a lot of hurting people, a lot of really good people too. There are people who work in maintenance, people who work in the dining hall, people who work as secretaries in the offices. They’re living lives that are somewhat separated from us. We can make an impact on them and their kids by volunteerism. That’s why I do it.”