MU student volunteers big part of event

In order for the Dallas harvest festival to be a success, organizers rely on community volunteers to assist at the event.

Students from misericordia university make up the largest group of volunteers each year at the festival with about 80 students helping at last year’s festival.

“When they first started the harvest festival, they contacted us and looked for help and support,” said Darcy Brodmerkel, director of student activities at misericordia university. “The institution itself wanted to be involved with it because we are part of the dallas community. We put a lot of emphasis on students giving back and also to the community they live in.”

The students help vendors set up and take down their stands at the festival on Sunday. They also clean up and assist with activities such as the Harvest Farm, history area and contests. Many teams and campus clubs sign up as a group to work at the festival. Participants receive a t-shirt that says “misericordia university volunteer” with the Dallas Harvest festival logo on it.

In past years, students also worked the Dallas Days Dance. They lend a hand in set up, clean up and serving food. But since the dance has been moved to Shadowbrook Inn and Resort in Tunkhannock this year, Misericordia will not send volunteers. Shadowbrook provides employees to serve food and the venue is a distance from the university campus.

“The distance is an issue,” Brodmerkel said. “I thought it might be a littler bit harder to get them there. Some of the students don’t drive.”

The Dallas Days Dance was relocated to Shadowbrook from the irem temple country club because Irem is undergoing renovations.

It’s not too hard to get students to sign up to volunteer at the festival once the word is out. Doing that is a challenge, however, since students return to classes just under three weeks before the event.

Misericordia student Megan Baker, 20, of Dallas, volunteered at the Dallas harvest festival last year. Baker, who is entering her junior year, had never attended the festival prior to 2007 and was delighted to see former teachers from Dallas High School and old friends at the festival.

“It was fun because I didn’t know there was anything like that in the area,” she said. “I didn’t think as much of the community would be involved as there was.”

Senior Nick DeStefano, 21, of Chesapeake Beach, Md., didn’t know what to expect at the harvest festival. He says his hometown does not have bazaars or festivals such as those that occur in Northeastern Pennsylvania. In 2006, DeStefano wore the Misericordia Cougar mascot costume at the Dallas harvest festival and admits to not having much of an opportunity to experience anything other than being hot and overwhelmed by children.

But in 2007, DeStefano was more involved. He was the master of ceremonies for the Harvest Idol competition tryouts and also helped at Irem. Both he and Baker tried out for the Harvest Idol and scooped chili at the professional chili cookoff.

“This is probably one of my favorite things within the area,” DeStefano said. “When you do the harvest festival, it kind of brings the whole community together.”

DeStefano especially remembers when “Abilene” played a country song last year at the Dallas Days Dance. People started to do a mini line dance and he didn’t know how to do it so he went out onto the floor and danced around in a silly manner. A woman danced with him for the remainder of the song and even placed a cowboy hat on his head.

“That was definitely a highlight,” Brodmerkel laughed.

Jude Schappert, 22, a graduate assistant from Hanover Township, assisted vendors last year with set up and take down along with members of the university’s track and field team, of which he was a member during his undergraduate years. Schappert also decorated hay bales with pumpkins and squash to make them look more festive.

“I do attend the meetings throughout the year so I know how much they (organizers) appreciate the help,” Brodmerkel said. “I think it’s a very successful day for the community and I’m just glad our students can be a success with them.”

Members of the community interested in volunteering throughout the coming year for the 2009 Dallas harvest festival can sign up at a stand at this year’s festival.

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Sunday, September 07, 2008 |

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