500 UW-Milwaukee Students “Make a Difference” for Elders

As UW-Milwaukee hosted the city-wide kickoff of the annual Make a Difference Day for the first time on a recent Saturday, one of the people students helped was 79-year-old Eleanor Quint, who needed a hand preparing for winter.

Quint was right there with the students with a rake in hand. She sported a blue, fall jacket, sweatpants and a pair of gloves. The helping students tried their best keep her workload at zero, but Quint insisted on pitching in.

“It was so joyous!” said Quint. “I mean they were just having fun. And I never got a sense of ‘oh I wish I didn’t have to do this; I had to get up too early.’”

Quint’s front, side and especially her backyard were in need of cleaning. Leaves, loose twigs and other natural debris coated and overwhelmed the grass. As the students tackled one part of the yard together, the transformation from leaf-covered yard to polished lawn happened in about an hour’s time.

One of the six students cleaning Quint’s yard, UWM freshman Trevor Bramstedt, said, “It’s awesome that I get to go out on Saturday morning, where I probably would’ve slept in, and be able to know that I did something that day to help someone who really can’t do what they need to do for winter.”

The amount of volunteers signed up tallied around 600 this year, with retention remaining in the 500 range. This number of students has been consistent over the past couple years. There were a lot of hands on deck for the event, with volunteers sourced from student orgs, Milwaukee organizations and even from residents of Sandburg. The purpose of Make a Difference is to help elderly people prepare for the winter. Some of the residents are widowed or disabled. With the inevitable snowfall coming soon, this event ensures that those in need are as prepared as they can be for the winter season.

“Through the Living and Learning Communities, the students and residents get to figure out what means to be a part of part of Milwaukee,” said Annabelle Arney, an RA in Sandburg’s North tower. “They’re connected right away by their major, so it’s really nice to be able to take a group of connected students out to something bigger.”

LLCs are put in place for students, all living on the same floor as their fellow classmates, to meet new people and learn leadership roles. Arney’s the leader of her Education and Leadership LLC in Sandburg. She and a group of five of her residents helped out Quint, a Cramer street resident, just blocks away from the dorms.

The jurisdiction for the volunteer-run event is vast. Most UWM students attended to local Eastside neighborhoods and even the roads around campus. But some students were distributed west (Harambee and Sherman Park neighborhoods); north (Whitefish Bay and Glendale); south (Bayview); and some even to Cudahy and Oak Creek areas.

The in-house UWM transportation service, B.O.S.S., helped students without cars get to places that were further out.

Until this year, Make a Difference Day was called Rak-a-thon in the UWM branch of the event, but the name change was made to further solidify this event’s involvement with the city-wide affair.

Make a Difference Day has been going for more than 10 years. The Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee organizes the event, with UWM being a heavy affiliate with the org. Out of approximately 250 homes, UWM students took about 100 of those this year.

“Yard work can be really strenuous, so the fact that we can help do that is really great,” said Director of Community-Based Learning Nicky Glaser. “It really helps these older adults maintain their independence.”

Interfaith is a Milwaukee-centric organization that helps elderly people stay active and independent in their community, something they’ve been doing since 1975. Some members of Interfaith were also at Quint’s home to assure everything went smoothly for her on the day of the event. Interfaith’s mission moves in tandem with Make Difference Day, as they want to be sure elders can maintain their own independence.

Volunteers were treated to tacos and drinks from 20/20 catering when they returned to campus for their breaks. Complementing the rest period was the Milwaukee Public Television Documentary Dream Big Dreams, which follows Civil Rights leader Vel Phillips. Philips was a Wisconsin attorney and Secretary of State in Wisconsin, often being the first African-American woman in many of her positions. The film was shown twice to accommodate those returning at various times: once at 11:15 a.m. and again at 12:15 p.m.

Glaser says that UWM receives a lot of “Thank You” cards from residents who had students work on their homes.