Get Involved, Make Connections, and Make a Difference
COAR sponsors several different campus-wide volunteer opportunities each year. Come volunteer with us to learn more about the City of Fredericksburg, earn service hours, and meet other students who are passionate about service.
Notice for COVID-19 pandemic: Our campus-wide events will look a little different this year. Follow us @coarumw on Instagram to learn more about our events and activities.
Accessibility
Questions about the accessibility of our events? Reach out to us with questions at sdewees@umw.edu.
COAR offers the following annual events:
- Into the Streets
- Pumpkinpalooza
- Head Start Wrapping Party & Gift Box Drive
- Good Neighbor Day
- Spring Forward Festival
Into the Streets
This event provides the opportunity for new and returning students to get “Into the Streets” and learn more about our Fredericksburg community and make a difference through service. Students can choose to participate in one of several community service projects at local nonprofit agencies. Past projects have included yard work for different organizations, walking dogs at the SPCA, making meals for the homeless shelter, doing crafts with the elderly at a local retirement facility, and river beautification with Friends of the Rappahannock.
Pumpkin Palooza
Every year, COAR offers a program that provides local children and families with a safe place to trick-or-treat on campus. Themed games, crafts, snacks, and costumes make for a fun way to spend an autumn day! Mary Washington students are invited to help with trick-or-treating, games, and crafts.
Head Start Gift Box Drive
Each year, COAR conducts a gift box drive for children enrolled in the local Virginia Preschool Initiative and Head Start programs. This is a campus and community-wide effort to provide preschoolers in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania with toys, winter clothes, and school supplies before the holiday season. Students wrap gift boxes at the annual wrapping party to prepare for the campus-wide gift drive. Then faculty, staff, and students check out the boxes to fill up with items such as storybooks, coloring books, crayons, hats, gloves, and small toys. Gift boxes are given out to Head Start students by our very own Dean Rucker as Santa!
Good Neighbor Day
Good Neighbor Day provides an opportunity for students to get to know our university neighbors and provide helpful yard work for local residents. This day is a great way to strengthen the relationships between students and members of the Fredericksburg community. COAR does this by sending students to volunteer at homes in the College Heights and College Terrace neighborhoods, doing outdoor service projects such as gardening, painting, raking, and mulching. After the morning of service, there is a free picnic on Ball Circle for students and community members.
Spring Forward Festival
The Spring Forward Festival welcomes Fredericksburg families and their children to the lawn of Brompton for a day of crafts, games, and fun. Local families are invited to spend the afternoon on the lawn of the UMW president’s house, a few blocks from the UMW campus. At the event, there are spring crafts, games, and egg hunts. Student volunteers help with all aspects of the Spring Forward Festival. Community members are asked to accompany their children; egg hunt participants must be under the age of 12.