Volunteering competition encourages long-term student activism

This month, students will have the opportunity to give back to the community in the name of madness — Mitzvah Madness.

Robert Beiser, the social justice coordinator of Hillel UW, has teamed up with students in Hillel’s justice group, Tzedek UW, to create a month-long volunteering competition called Mitzvah Madness, in which participants can enter their volunteer hours to win prizes.

“A mitzvah in its traditional definition from the Torah is a commandment or obligation given by God,” Beiser said. “In this case, we wanted to focus on the particular set of acts that include things like helping the poor.”

As social justice coordinator, Beiser works with students in five areas at Hillel: education, action, advocacy, service and experience.

“In January, we were talking about how we have a group of students who were doing volunteer service on a regular basis, but they know a lot of their friends don’t really get involved in volunteering and service,” Beiser said. “Someone said that we should have some type of contest. After that, Mitzvah Madness was born.”

Junior Hannah Zommick is an active member of Tzedek UW and helped plan Mitzvah Madness.

“A lot of synagogues have mitzvah days,” she said. “A bunch of the [Hillel members] got together and realized that it doesn’t make sense to only volunteer one day out of the year. We thought it would be good if we could encourage people to spend the entire month dedicated to volunteering.”

Zommick visited local high schools and Sunday schools in an effort to spread Mitzvah Madness past the boundaries of the UW’s campus. The competition is open to everyone and the only prerequisite is having a desire to give back to the community.

Although it is the middle of March, there is still time to be in the running for a wide array of prizes to be given away April 6, Beiser said. At least one service hour must be submitted to be in the running.

The prizes include an iPod Touch, spa gift certificates, U-Book Store gift cards, movie tickets. As the month goes on and more participants are volunteering, businesses will continue to donate prizes.

“In the first couple days … about 20 people [registered], but our Facebook groups have gotten a lot of hits,” he said. “Our goal is to have at least 250 to 300 people register and submit at least one hour.”

Mitzvah Madness is not all about the incentives, however.

“The students who thought of [Mitzvah Madness] wanted to share the fun and enjoyment of volunteering with others,” Beiser said.

Zommick hopes Mitzvah Madness will serve as a springboard for people to volunteer more.

“Even if someone volunteers one or two hours, it will be easier for them to go back,”

Zommick said. “They’ll have a contact and it will be easier to get their friends to go. We’re selling it as a way to volunteer, win prizes and get involved with the community, but our hope is that it sticks.”

[Reach reporter Kyle Frischkorn at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]