[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/shelter_visit.jpg” caption=”Alayna Kolodziechuk and Leo Johnson delivered food to a local food bank last winter.”]As students return to McMaster next week, Westdale is about to become a busier place. Whether students are moving into McMaster residences or houses and apartments in the surrounding community, it is a good time of year to look back on the largely co-operative relationship students have had with Hamilton, and the many ways they still contribute to the community.

This summer, a group of students organized by the Office of Community Service Learning & Civic Engagement spent some of their free time participating in the Hamilton United Way's Week of Impact.

Students were involved in constructing a walkway for the Victoria Order of Nurses, as well as helping the Hamilton chapter of the Community Child Abuse Council of Canada move its offices.

Adam Kuhn, director of the Office of Community Service Learning & Civic Engagement, says, “The week was a fantastic opportunity for students to participate in Week of Impact and make some connections with local agencies. Students worked as a team to familiarize themselves with important issues in the city. We learned a lot while having fun.”

CURE Canada is a not-for-profit organization started by McMaster students Leo Johnson, Michael Pett and Alayna Kolodziechuk. It has grown since its inception to have chapters at several Ontario universities.

The organization runs a program called the Community Homework Club that functions as a tutor and after-school care service for underprivileged students in Hamilton.

Tutors help students on a wide variety of subjects ranging from math to English, and the students are also given an opportunity to collaborate and play together. Its focus is on mentorship, individual attention and making sure the environment is low-stress. The Homework Club for the Fall/Winter 2008-09 term is being organized by the McMaster chapter of CURE.

The McMaster Summer Drama Festival runs through the month of July, and features a series of plays organized entirely by McMaster students. Tickets are sold at affordable rates for students and community members alike. Classical, contemporary and original works make the festival appealing to almost every type of theatre fan.

The McMaster chapter of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group has a working group called Food Not Bombs, which specializes in collecting food that would otherwise be thrown out, and making it into free meals that are distributed in downtown Hamilton.

These are just four examples of the many ways McMaster students give back to the community. Over the course of McMaster's history, students have formed hundreds of clubs, initiatives and independent groups to help out their neighbours.

“It's great to see all these positive interactions between McMaster students and the Hamilton community,” says McMaster Student Union president Azim Kasmani. “From students helping with the Westdale clean-up in September, to student volunteers year-round, the incredible volume of student involvement is overwhelming.”