Using Your Volunteer Leave

All University Staff are allotted 16 hours of School Assistance and Volunteer Service Leave. Have you used yours? The guidelines for using this leave are broad (contact UHR to determine a specific opportunity's eligibility). Many people have put their leave to good use in local schools and other community service efforts. Here are some examples:

Mark Anderson spends an hour each week working one-on-one with a participant at Computers4Kids to tackle computer projects. At the end of 36 sessions, the participant takes home their very own computer.

For two years in a row, Andrew Bedotto travelled to Massachusetts to assist The Institute for Natural Learning in facilitating a weekend outdoor mentoring program for adolescent boys.

Randy Ellis and his fellow coaches at Western Albemarle spend time with kids at the YMCA to talk about coaching and mentoring.

For several years, Lynn Galasso used school/volunteer leave hours to support her son in the High School Regional & State Academic Quiz Tournament competitions in Richmond and Northern Virginia.

Alpana Gautam uses her leave to volunteer at her daughter’s elementary school. Recently she helped make the salt dough maps that students will be using for a geography project.

Kobby Hoffman speaks to middle schools students in Albemarle County regarding leadership, involvement in community service and personal finance.

Lisa Layne volunteered at Caring for Creatures in Fluvanna, helping with the cats and dogs.

For the past three years, Mike Ludwick has used his service leave (and some annual leave) to go on week-long trips to West Virginia with the high school youth group from his church to help improve housing conditions for those in need.

Patty Marbury spent a week in Darlington County, South Carolina with Habitat for Humanity doing a “blitz build”--a team of about 50 people built an entire house from foundation to roof in 6 days!

Lynne Schwar knits shawls for Caring Embrace, a volunteer group at Martha Jefferson Hospital, who provide shawls for patients and often family members who could use a little comforting after a tough diagnosis or death of a loved one. She has also volunteered at Hope's Legacy Equine Rescue in Afton, feeding the horses and doing barn chores.

Marissa Waddell volunteered as a docent at the Charlottesville Design House for the Shelter for Help in Emergency, which provides services to women and children who are victims of domestic violence.