MSU student volunteer Andrea Orr, axe in hand, helped maintain trails south of Bozeman. Photo by Carol Flaherty MSU Student Volunteers Dig In by Carol Flaherty While some students were still signing up for fall semester classes at MSU, more than a dozen students were out digging trails south of Bozeman -- digging in the old-fashioned sense of enjoying, but also digging to maintain the trail itself. Students from Mexico, Vermont, Wisconsin, Montana, New York and Colorado were organized into a cadre to help maintain the Triple Tree Trail. Their efforts were the beginning of a wave of volunteers that will include about a quarter of MSU's students over the school year. About 2,000 to 3,000 MSU students volunteer with nonprofit organizations in the Gallatin Valley every year, says Kathy Tanner, director of MSU's Office of Community Involvement. This year their first undertaking was working under the guidance of Gary Vodehnal, trails coordinator for the Gallatin Valley Land Trust, to dig water-routing depressions and cut brush along the Trust-maintained trail that winds toward public lands in Bozeman's foothills. Students find out about volunteer opportunities through the Community Involvement office, through their fraternities and sororities, and by individually searching for a way to serve. No one has any idea how many hours students volunteer. "Many thousands" is all Tanner will guess. She doesn't try to track individual students, but asks nonprofit organizations to tell her at the end of the year how many students they had as volunteers. Tanner's office gets requests for help from many organizations -- from the Child Advancement Project that works to place mentors with elementary through high school students and the Befrienders, who work with older community members, to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank that provides food to people in need and to the Gallatin Valley Land Trust with all sorts of trail-building and maintenance needs. There always are more opportunities than volunteers, says Tanner. "The nonprofits want more volunteers each year. They need more, and we're eager to help them," says Tanner. During this year's "Into the Streets" recruitment Sept. 15 and 16, between 35 and 40 nonprofit organizations came to campus to recruit students, faculty and staff. College students are often drawn to opportunities to help kids, says Tanner. Both children and senior citizens are two "high-need populations," she adds. "The number of kids needing mentors, tutors, role models and help with sports skills is growing." Nonprofits also call Greek Coordinator Cali Morrison to recruit volunteers from MSU's fraternities and sororities. Morrison says that between 350 to 400 members volunteered about 7,400 hours during the past school year. The Greek organizations compete for awards for community service and philanthropy, and last year raised more than $18,000 for national and local charities. While many individuals from fraternities and sororities volunteer, they often volunteer en masse, having fun while trick-or-treating to raise money for charities, doing a food drive just before Thanksgiving, and participating in Bozeman's Clean-Up Day. Volunteering is a win-win situation, adds Tanner. "Students both serve others and gain experience in areas that interest them."