Around a dozen local non-profit organizations that tabled at the Oakland Center on Feb. 12 are taking OU’s Week of Kindness beyond university grounds.
“Organizations like ours; we depend on volunteers, I need up to 100 volunteers to make my program run,” Michelle Wogaman, Bound Together director, said. “There have been any number of Oakland University students who have been a really important part of the Bound Together story, particularly in the last five years.”
Offering tutoring for children in Pontiac and other enrichment programs in arts, STEM, literacy and fitness, Bound Together tabled at OU for those interested in helping middle and elementary school students.
“There’s only a 71% graduation rate in Pontiac,” Wogaman said. “Our job is to make sure that everyone gets into high school, well prepared to get that diploma and that we’re also providing that story, that self-talk, that says ‘I’m going to stay in school, I’m going to graduate from high school and here’s what I want to do with my life.’”
Founded 30 years ago, Bound Together saw an increase in college student volunteers during the pandemic as online tutoring became widespread. Post-pandemic, they sought to maintain the engagement they had with the OU community — something the Forgotten Harvest also procures.
“There’s a pantry that is about three and a half miles from here that you can go and volunteer at or there’s also a pantry at the Oakland Center,” Sydney Johnson, Forgotten Harvest community engagement coordinator, said. “We give a donation to Oakland University so if they want to donate at the actual Oakland Center they can give out food there.”
The food rescue organization feeds people across Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties with 144,000 pounds of surplus food per day provided by donors and community partners.
“We have over 500 donors. We work with Kroger, Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, local restaurants, and they are giving us food,” Johnson said. “We sort the food, looking for quality and making sure the food is good enough to go out to the public.”
In a similar manner, Micah 6 Community focuses on community gardens as a way of fighting food scarcity in Pontiac.
“We have four-season gardens, we have a children’s garden, we grow a lot of fruits, vegetables, stuff like that and have kids programming during the summer,” Renee Duvall, Micah 6 Community volunteer coordinator, said. “So, there’s a lot to do over the summer — growing food, getting harvests and serving the community because we are in a food desert.”
The Pontiac-based initiative has also diversified its operations by creating a community center, building tiny homes for the elderly population and helping kids enroll in school.
“We are currently renovating an elementary school that recently closed down. We are turning it into a community center,” Duvall said. “It’s gonna have head start programs, a lot of kids programs, dance classes, art classes, stuff like that. We’re gonna have a grocery store in there, we’re gonna have a walk-in clinic.”
OU students and alumni participated in the volunteer fair as organization representatives, attesting to the longstanding commitment between grizzlies and the community.
“I started in January of this year. I help with social media, I help around the warehouse, and I attend events like this,” Diana Toma, OU student and intern at The Bottomless Toy Chest, said. “I heard about it from my teacher actually — Professor Valerie Palmer-Mehta.”
Ava Pritchard, program coordinator at The Bottomless Toy Chest, a nonprofit helping children with cancer, also started as an intern while she was a student at OU. Now graduated, she has started her career with the same organization.
“I also started as an intern last January and then it evolved into a certain job as program coordinator,” Pritchard said. “I love Bottomless Toy Chest because we’re there on their worst days, keeping the hospital stocked with toys so if a child might receive bad news with a toy, maybe it won’t be so bad.”
