About 180 students gathered in Tempe on Saturday to participate in Plunge into Service, an event that took ASU students to sites in Phoenix to volunteer.

The students were split into groups that went to two sites: the Desert Botanical Gardens and University Public School Phoenix, a downtown elementary and middle school.

At the school, ASU students volunteered at the Arizona Coalition of Tomorrow Health Fair and served as translators and escorts, taking families around to different stations at the fair. Nursing students also helped doctors and nurses to administer free procedures like physicals, and vision and hearing screenings.

The health fair provided help to local families whose children are considered at-risk and qualify for the Phoenix Head Start program, but are without sufficient health care.

Students who went to the Desert Botanical Gardens prepared supplies for when schools visit the gardens. Their main task was to make luminaries, lanterns to light up the gardens during evening events.

Business finance freshman Janelle Brooker served as an escort for a mother and a daughter at the health fair. Brooker said she took them to get the daughter’s vision and hearing tests, and to get her flu shot.

“I think it was important to do this because these people are in our surrounding communities and they need help,” Brooker said. “It’s important to help the people who we can.”

Free procedures at the fair included vision and hearing screenings, physicals, immunizations, dental check-ups and lead screenings.

Arizona Coalition for Tomorrow Executive Director Clarence Williams said he thinks the community benefited significantly from the health fair because of all the services it provided.

ACT has hosted this fair for the past 19 years, and it’s the largest health fair in Phoenix, Williams said.

“[The families] got first-hand exposure to the medical screenings that a large portion of our community needs and does not get on a regular basis,” Williams said. “We have young children whose parents have never been able to afford to take them to a doctor on a regular basis and were finally able to get a medical screening.”

Williams said he thinks volunteers also benefitted from participating in the event.
“The volunteers were dealing with these children who do not get to see doctors usually unless it’s an emergency,” Williams said. “The ASU student volunteers, as well as the other volunteers, got to see firsthand the needs of our community and get a better understanding of how desperate those needs can sometimes be.”

Mina Ahmad, a coordinator from the Community Service Program, said she thinks the overall experience was a good reason for students to spend a Saturday volunteering.

“College is more than taking classes,” she said. “It’s about experiences, and I think volunteering is one of the greatest experiences for a student to have.”

Reach the reporter at sheydt@asu.edu.