Thirty-five community-based teams from Colgate’s Center for Outreach, Volunteerism and Education (COVE) are up and running, providing services to several community agencies near and far from Colgate. Below are a few of the major events that have occurred this fall.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. The COVE group laso – named for the ancient Greek goddess of healing – focuses on promoting domestic violence awareness.

For the second year, Iaso circulated a gift basket raffle around campus through dorms, academic departments, the COVE, Residential Life, the Barge Canal Coffee Company and the O’Connor Campus Center (COOP). The proceeds go directly to benefit children who live in a local safe house for victims of abuse.

On October 18, Iaso hosted the Silent Witness Exhibit. The exhibit consisted of silhouettes containing the stories of six Central New York women who were murdered by acts of domestic violence.

Iaso is committed to promoting awareness about the violence that is endured by many women, both nationally and internationally. They also feel the importance in addressing the Colgate campus on a personal level. These stories of personal tragedy take place everywhere, and Colgate is no exception. Iaso’s motto is “Terminate Silence Surrounding Domestic Violence.”

On Sunday, October 22, over 50 Colgate students came to Golden Auditorium to meet their new “Sidekick.” Sidekicks is a mentoring program that pairs Colgate students with children ages five-to-13 in order to provide local kids with a college-aged mentor.

Members of the Sidekicks leadership team and a local parent spoke to the Colgate students about what it means to be a positive mentor as well as how to communicate and dedicate oneself to a relationship with a younger child.

Once the parents and children arrived, the leadership team discussed the purpose of the program, ground rules, and ways to create a meaningful relationship, followed by an opportunity to make an early bond over dinner and ice cream sundaes at Frank Dining Hall.

Doing Well by Doing Good, a series of brown bag lunches sponsored by the COVE and Career Services, opened the 2006-07 school year with several individuals of merit from the upstate region.

Diana Bowers, the new Superintendent of Hamilton Central School, spoke in early September about her 25 years in the field of education. Also visiting in September was Carl Boykin ’83, an Assistant United States Attorney who returned to live in his home neighborhood of Cornhill in Utica. Boykin is currently involved with several initiatives to revitalize the area, known only 10 years ago as the arson capital of America. Most recently, Sydney Waller, Executive Director of the Sculpture Space in Utica spoke about careers in non-profit arts management.

The next lecture features the Manzi Fellows, who will discuss their projects last summer and the opportunities available for students who apply for those fellowships in the future.