College of St. Scholastica Students Give Back to the Community

DULUTH, Minn. — The College of St. Scholastica is dedicating February 28th as a day to give back to the community.

Community Day has been going on at the college since 1999. Around 800 students, faculty, and staff were out Wednesday volunteering. One group of students were at the Damiano Center helping sort clothes for those in need. A student says a big reason why he chose to go to CSS was because of their impact in the community.

“I think it’s so important especially in where the society we live in today too. You know we’re so technologically surrounded that you know we just sort of get away from that and go out in the community and get in person with people and just one on one and just get back to we could call roots,” said Ryane Renebrager, freshman at CSS.

Damiano Center staff says they had to stop asking for clothing donations for the month of February as they were overwhelmed with how many that were donated. The student’s work is helping them out tremendously.

“It gets it back into the community faster for those in need. And so, I just hope that they take away a sense of pride, a sense of accomplishment, a sense of just joy for all the work that they’re doing here today,” said Rebecca VanGrevenhof, Clothing Programs Coordinator at the Damiano Center.

Other Community Day projects included help at Second Harvest and the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. New this year were on-campus workshops. Those took place to help students understand why community building and service is so important.