Buenafication Day Effort Expands Upon Service
Esports plays gaming marathon while Student Activities Board conducts rummage sale, both to aid organizations that benefit the community.
More than 1,100 volunteers participated in Buena Vista University’s 109th Buenafication Day on April 21.
The day traces its roots back to 1913 when students joined faculty members and staff in a day of spring cleaning across campus. The current incarnation sees the effort expanded to include volunteer service to a variety of organizations throughout Storm Lake, Buena Vista County, and beyond. The timetable has also expanded as BVU community members embrace their “Education for Service” roots throughout the week.
“The Student Activities Board (SAB) sold BVU t-shirts from past Buenafication Day celebrations and events like BVU Homecoming during the week in a rummage sale,” says BVU SAB President Lauryn Kalkowski, a junior business major from Louisville, Neb. “We gave the proceeds to the Storm Lake parks.”
“It’s nice to take pride in the community. Making the parks look good gives us a good feeling.”
Thomas Bertrand
Those same parks were the beneficiaries of a great spring cleaning by several BVU teams and organizations on Buenafication Day, a day in which no classes are held. Thomas Bertrand, a junior from South Sioux City, Neb., worked with fellow BVU ROTC Cadets in sprucing up Sunset Park and Circle Park between campus and Storm Lake. Cadets planted eight to ten trees in those parks.
“It’s nice to take pride in the community,” says Bertrand, a criminology and criminal justice major. “Making the parks look good gives us a good feeling.”
Nathan Reusch and Taryn Robles, members of BVU’s esports club, helped lead an esports fundraising marathon in which team members participating in online gaming activities for 24 hours while raising funds for Upper Des Moines Opportunity, Inc., a site that serves thousands of people throughout Buena Vista County.
“I was going to be up late, so I thought I might as well play for a good cause,” says Reusch, a sophomore computer science major from Cherokee who participated from 12 a.m. to 9 a.m.
“It was a busy day. It felt good to be serving a place where I’ll be the next four-plus years,” says Robles, a criminology and criminal justice major from Glendale, Ariz., who gamed around the clock that day.
Amanda Pribil, a 2007 BVU graduate, celebrated the Bueanafication Day tradition at home in Bennington, Neb., with her daughters, Katie, 7, and Charlotte, 4. The trio spent time pulling weeds in a roundabout area serving their neighborhood.
“We saw a need and enjoyed the beautiful weather outside while trying to make our corner of the universe a little better,” says Pribil, who remembered volunteering at Santa’s Castle, among other sites, during her time as a Beaver.
While dozens of current students picked up trash, sticks, and branches in Storm Lake parks on Buenafication Day, others packaged meal kits and cleaned the beach at Scout Park. Three Beaver athletics teams reported to Buena Vista University Golf Course at Lake Creek to assist in clean-up and maintenance efforts while more aided efforts at Storm Lake sites like The Bridge, Otsego Place, and the Buena Vista County Regional Medical Center.
Storm Lake United Executive Director Breanna Horsey, a 2020 BVU graduate who gave a welcome address to start the day, lauded their efforts.
“At the end of the day, I wanted BVU students to think about how their work made them feel, both physically and emotionally, as they gave their time and energy to the community and made it better,” says Horsey, who recalled cleaning areas of the library during past Buenafication Day celebrations. “That’s something I gained from BVU’s liberal arts focus and its ‘Education for Service’ mission: You will never regret giving your time and commitment for something you care about that also gives back to the community.”
For Horsey, the campus and community will surely look beautiful as she earns her graduate degree on May 7.
All told, some 609 members of the BVU community joined 500 students from Storm Lake High School in working 2,355.5 volunteer hours on the day.
“We had a wonderful day with the weather and the work service projects seemed to go very well,” says Megan Wescoat, BVU Director of Student & Community Engagement. “Buenafication Day is such an important tradition at BVU. It shows us all how important it is to give something back to the people in our community, the people who take care of all of us.”