Work-A-Day has found a new place on the Law Student Division calendar.Recognizing that the brutal weather in the North and Midwest often discourages heavy turnout in wintertime community-service projects in those regions, the Law Student Division's Board of Governors in April unanimously voted to move the date of the annual Work-A-Day program from late January to the last Saturday in October. This year, Work-A-Day will take place on Oct. 25. Work-A-Day, which began at the University of Illinois College of Law in 1991, is the Law Student Division's call for law students to set aside their casebooks for a single day and to contribute their skills and talents to the communities where their law schools are located. Work-A-Day promotes volunteerism among law students at a time when much of America views the legal profession as a haven for the greedy and unethical.
"It's one day when we ask for 100 percent participation across the country and for people to roll up their sleeves," says Randa Ismail, the immediate past secretary-treasurer of the Law Student Division. "This is our opportunity to take our legal skills to the community and to improve the image of the profession at the same time."
Anne Castro, chair of the Law Student Division's Public Interest Committee, agrees. "Work-A-Day is the one day we, as law students, are all doing the same thing and are all thinking the same way," she says. "With the constant reduction in the funding of government agencies, the private sector has to pick up more of the pieces. This is our chance to pick up what's needed." About 100 law schools participated in Work-A-Day last year, and about 20 more schools are expected to participate this year because of the change in its date. Between 6,000 and 8,000 law students are expected to participate.
"Work-A-Day celebrates the importance of public service and how law students can begin to develop a community-service ethic before entering the bar," says Jeffrey Jacobson, chair of the Law Student Division. This year's Work-A-Day theme - "Law Students . . . Building A Community . . . Making A Difference" - reflects that idea.
Last year, the University of Toledo College of Law in Ohio turned Work-A-Day into Pitch-A-Paint. On that Saturday, Toledo law students pounded the neighborhood streets and went from house to house collecting old paint canisters and aerosol spray cans. Working with the school's environmental law society, they properly disposed of the used containers. This year, Toledo students will concentrate their community-service efforts on food drives or shelters for battered women or abused children, says second-year law student Justin Steltenpohl, Toledo's ABA/LSD School Representative.
At Nova Southeastern University's law school in Florida, about 25 law students spent Work-A-Day at Jack and Jill, a United Way-subsidized nursery in downtown Fort Lauderdale for parents who have trouble paying for daycare. The law students straightened up the daycare area, erased marks on the walls, prepared food for the children and cleaned the kitchen. "We did everything that required a little elbow grease," says Castro.
This year, Castro says she hopes to involve two other Florida law schools - the University of Miami and St. Thomas University - in a Work-A-Weekend program building a home for Habitat for Humanity. Moving Work-A-Day from January to October is just the first step to increasing nationwide participation in the program. The Law Student Division's Public Interest Committee has been examining several other options with the eventual goal of adding a second Work-A-Day in the spring. "What we're hoping to do eventually is to have a fall Work-A-Day and a spring Work-A-Day," Ismail says.
While the Work-A-Days serve their purpose by raising awareness of community needs, volunteering in the community should be an ongoing affair. Organizers say they hope law students use the program as a springboard to other community-service activities throughout their law school careers. "The fall Work-A-Day would serve as a kick-off," Ismail says. "The spring Work-A-Day would bring it to a close."
Tommy Sangchompuphen
September 1997 Table of Contents | Student Lawyer | Law Student Division
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