KIM BENFIELD

Kim Benfield is a member of Gamma Sigma Sigma, the national co-ed sorority that requires each member to perform 20 hours of community service per semester. Kim volunteers with the G.I.V.E. Center (Georgia College & State University Involved in Volunteer Efforts), which serves as the volunteer/community service clearinghouse empowering students to make a difference in the community.

This organization at GC & SU just recently won the National Service Merit Award for all their help with Relay for Life, the 24-hour Cancer Walk in Baldwin County. Kim was on the planning committee all year, as well as volunteered over 100 hours with the Relay. She is very active in Gamma Sigma Sigma and because of all her hard work, commitment and dedication she has become a wonderful member of this service sorority. Kim is not only a member this year, but is the Service Vice President and will be responsible for coordinating and planning many volunteer opportunities for all the members. There are over 50 members in the group, which will mean that Kim will be responsible for getting students to volunteer over 2000 hours this year. This is the third year she will have been a member of this group.

Kim has an extensive list of volunteer opportunities in which she has participated. She was past President of the collegiate 4-H chapter. She volunteered with Little Feet for one year, where she helped teach at-risk children how to dance. She has volunteered with blood drives for 3 years and helped at the refreshment table, as well as helped with other needed things.

She has gone through MAXX training with the American Red Cross to be able to register donors and work with the plastics of Blood Drives in Baldwin County. She was a Student Coordinator for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and in this capacity, she worked to help recruit college students to become a mentor/tutor with the T5 (Taking Time To Talk and Teach) program in local elementary schools for a year. She has coordinated service projects for 25 students at the Emerging Leaders Retreat, where they build birdhouses for a local nursing home so that the residents could enjoy them last semester. She volunteers with the beautification of downtown Milledgeville. She volunteers with Habitat for Humanity on GC & SU College Days. She has tutored at-risk youth from a local elementary school for a semester. She taught life skills’ workshops for a middle school after-school program for 2 years. She volunteered as a clown for a back-to-school party for at-risk, low-income children for 3 years. She has been dancing with Toe Jam Time, a local clogging team for nursing homes and day care center, for 5 years. And finally, she volunteered with State Farm during their annual Bike Rodeo for 2 years.

Kim not only volunteers her time, but gets others to volunteer as well. She has already gotten 12 members involved with the new Colleges Against Cancer group and they have already started making crafts for cancer survivors, working on Anti-tobacco campaign, developing a speaker’s bureau about Prevention and Education about Cancer, developing a cancer buddy program, where volunteers in the community will be matched up with cancer survivors to develop a friendship; and they will also work directly with Relay For Life this year.