Whitworth students take time to serve

In the lobby, near where Tyno the llama stood and across from a water-filled tub for rubber duck racing, was a board with several balloons taped to it. At the base of the board rested several squirt guns.

That was where Whitworth College freshman Ray Valle, 19, hung out Tuesday morning, helping residents of the Rockwood at Hawthorne retirement community north of Spokane hit their inflatable targets with jets of water.

“They win every time, so it always puts a smile on their face,” he said.

Valle was one of 15 freshmen and one sophomore who put on a fair at the facility as part of Whitworth College’s annual Community Building Day, a decades-old tradition. All told, about 600 students and faculty members fanned out to 32 locations to help clean, organize and provide three hours of labor for nonprofit organizations.

The day started more than 100 years ago as a campus-beautification project, but in the 1960s students began volunteering at other locations in the city, said Jacob Spaun of the college’s Center for Service-Learning. This year’s group was the largest ever, he said.

“We’re not going to be able to fix the whole city in the morning,” he said. “It’s really to expose them and really instill an ethic of service as they graduate and move on in the world.”

For many, especially those without cars, it was also the first time they’d spent much time off campus.

During the project, which cost about $2,500 in student money, mostly for transportation, benefiting agencies also gave tours to the students, said sophomore Kacie Gartland, who coordinates volunteer activities on campus.

“(We’re) trying to make that connection to students having to get out of bed early to doing something that’s worthwhile,” she said.

At Rockwood at Hawthorne, near Whitworth College, students did less manual labor and more interacting with some of the 120 residents. One of the most popular activities, however, was interacting with Tyno the llama, who made the rounds through the lobby and parking lot. A game in which residents “fish” for prizes hidden behind a divider using a fishing pole also was popular.

Christina Lautensack, 18, enjoyed giving residents manicures, massaging their hands with lotion before filing and putting polish on their nails.

Lautensack, from Northern California, had once before painted fingernails in a retirement home, she said, but she has only been to Washington once, in March, before starting the school year.

She painted 40 fingernails Tuesday, mostly applying a clear coat. Residents don’t get their nails painted often, so they chose clear coats because chips in colored polish could look bad, she said.

“They enjoy it, so it’s nice to give back, because they never get their nails done,” she said.