The first “Think Globally, Act Locally” challenge began last weekend with six community service events in the San Luis Obispo community.
Cal Poly Engineers Without Borders (EWB) member and civil engineering sophomore Sam Tooley came up with the event last quarter and decided to do everything he could to make it happen in a short period of time.
“We thought, ‘We can either save this for next year or pull it off in just five weeks,’” Tooley said. “You can always wait for a big idea or try it when you’re ready for it.”
Tooley wanted to find a way to make a difference that isn’t necessarily visible, he said.
He decided to do so by challenging Cal Poly students to complete 2,000 hours of community service in San Luis Obispo through several events. The events were mostly suggested by residents and planned by EWB students.
EWB wanted to include the San Luis Obispo community as much as possible, Tooley said. Tooley spoke about the event on KCPR and someone called in to suggest the students help clean up his mobile home neighborhood.
“We want to know what the community thinks is important,” media coordinator and mechanical engineering sophomore Melinda Phan said.
The inspiration for the event came from the need for funding for international projects.
“Fundraising is a really hard thing that we struggle with, especially when we are trying to raise the amount of money that we need,” Tooley said.
Solar Turbines, a San Diego-based company of Caterpillar, Inc., became EWB’s first “gold level” sponsor with a $5,000 commitment.
Lockheed Martin, a global “security, aerospace and information technology” company according to its website, has also agreed to fund the organization’s summer projects.
“We are really excited to continue our partnership with our corporate sponors as we continue our work abroad and now begin implementing local projects,” Tooley said.
Through partnerships with the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, the dean of the college of engineering and the San Luis Obispo mayor and city manager, EWB has created a variety of different community service events.
“Last weekend was a really great experience,” Tooley said. “We finished off with 670 hours last weekend, and we’re expecting for at least the remaining 1,300 coming up this weekend.”
There weren’t just EWB members at the events. Other Cal Poly clubs helped out, including Invisible Children, Chi Epsilon and SLO Cru.
There are currently 10 service events scheduled for the upcoming weekend, some of which will include the help of other Cal Poly organizations, including Panhellenic.
The community service is not only generating funding for EWB, but it is also making a difference in the lives of community members, 24-year-old Josh Andrews said.
Andrews was present on Saturday morning at the Prado Day Center breakfast. EWB members and volunteers arrived at Prado Day Center, a local homeless day-shelter, at 7 a.m. to serve breakfast to the community’s homeless population.
“Without events like this, hundreds of people would go hungry a day,” Andrews said. “I know people who can’t even make it this far so they just eat out of garbage cans and without something like this there would be a lot more of that.”
The next volunteer opportunity begins at 3 p.m. on April 27 in Arroyo Grande.
Students, faculty or community members who want to help can visit the Cal Poly EWB challenge website for dates, times and locations of the planned community service events.
“Next year, we hope to start planning a little earlier, that way we can expand our impact past where we’ve been able to this year,” Tooley said. “We haven’t set any set-in-stone goals for next year, but a number we’ve been throwing around is 10,000 hours.”
This year’s “Think Globally, Act Locally” Challenge will conclude with a reception on April 29 at 6:30 p.m. in the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center. The function will give information about international project opportunities.