Multnomah Students Serve All Over Portland on Day of Outreach

Yesterday was MU’s Day of Outreach, a yearly event where many undergraduate students set aside time from their studies to go out and serve the community. This year’s event was filled with sun-bespeckled dust clouds, plop sounds from boxes in church basements and lots of laughs as students filed across the city.

The outreach time began with 30 minutes of worship on the university lawn amphitheater. After worship, the roughly 145 students went on to serve in a dozen projects ranging from neighborhood trash cleanup, partnering with Portland Rescue Mission and Portland Parks and Rec., and helping local churches. MU students were out most of the afternoon, and, with several of the projects close to campus, there were times when it seemed like a sea of lime-green tee shirts had descended upon the neighborhood.

Day of Outreach Coordinator and Associate Dean of Spiritual Life and Calling Rich Ward considers the event to be one of the most fundamental pieces of the Multnomah experience. “The Day of Outreach is a long-standing tradition rooted in the mission of MU,” says Ward. “Serving is a strong cord in our student experience, and the Day of Outreach is about joining together and doing what we can to serve Portland agencies that may need a few extra hands.”

“Love God, Love People” is the university’s spiritual life theme this year, and Day of Outreach is one of the best occasions for the community to live this theme out in a unified way. “I know that there will be great stories from the day,” says Ward. “I also believe that this is about Multnomah putting its money where its mouth is regarding what God has called us to. We do this every day throughout the semester, but today’s a day we get to be more intentional and do it together.”

Check out some photos from Day of Outreach below.