7th Annual
Steps to Make a Difference Walk
Steps to Make a Difference Walk
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Registration begins at 9:30
Walk at 10:00am
UW Green Bay University Union
The Steps to Make a Difference Walk is the UW-Green Bay campus response to the national Make a Difference Day, held annually on the last Saturday of October (the 27th this year). Steps Walk encourages UWGB students, student organizations, faculty, staff and Green Bay community members to ‘step up and help others’ by enjoying a 4 mile walk on the campus arboretum trail and donating to the nonprofit organization of their choice. The walk aids organizations that serve thousands of people throughout the Green Bay community, but also provides an opportunity for students to learn how to organize, advertise and lead an event, as well as connect together with campus and community members to help others.
It’s easy – join us for the Steps Walk! Register to walk as an individual or get a group together and register as a team. Registration starts at 9:30am at the UW Green Bay Union, the Walk starts at 10:00am on the beautiful Arboretum Trail that winds along the campus perimeter. Choose the 2 or 4 mile walk and visit Curly Lambeau’s cottage as a halfway point for some refreshments! Various individual and team awards will be given the day of the event.
Ready to ‘STEP Up’? Click below to download a registration form and register today! Registration form and donations are due by October 22nd to pre-register, however, day of event registration are also accepted. Registration to participate is $20 or more (raised or donated) per person.
Complete registration details can be found on the downloadable Fact Sheet and Registration form below!
In 2002, the Public and Nonprofit Management Class embraced the university’s mission of ‘connecting learning to life,’ by creating the first Steps to Make a Difference Walk. Every fall students work together to plan, organize, and implement the charity walk. This year in collaboration with the UW Green Bay Center for Public Affairs, a group of student leaders will plan, organize and implement the charity walk. In four years, the Steps Walk has raised over $40,000 for nonprofit organizations throughout the Green Bay community, receiving national attention in USA Weekend as a semi-finalist for a Make a Difference Award.
Countless challenges face our community, from debilitating diseases, degradation of the environment and homelessness. Over the past four years, money raised from the walk has gone to the NEW Community Clinic, New Community Shelter, Baird Creek Preservation Foundation, ALS Therapy Development Institute, the Bay Area Humane Society and Animal Shelter, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society – Wisconsin Chapter, Cystic Fibrosis, American Red Cross – Lakeland Chapter, Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, CASA, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Literacy Green Bay and N.E.W. Curative Rehabilitation, Inc.
These funds have helped provide prescription medications not otherwise available for clients at the NEW Community Clinic, new blankets for residents as they leave the NEW Community Shelter, support for the development of the master plan for Baird Creek, and transportation for elderly and disabled clients of the Red Cross, among other support. A guiding principle of the Steps Walk is to deliver 100 percent of the donations made by walkers to these deserving nonprofit organizations.
In addition to the benefits discussed above, the Steps Walk is uniquely positioned to help students become more engaged, active, caring community members. Students organizing the event gain leadership, organizational and team-building skills. They learn about challenges faced by local nonprofit organizations as they work closely with nonprofit leaders during the planning of the walk. By involving over two dozen student organizations, Steps Walk provides opportunities for over 200 students to “give back” to their community by not only raising donations as walkers, but also learning about the work of the nonprofit organizations during the day of the walk. Since the walk began, over a dozen students have gone directly into entry-level management positions of nonprofit organizations in the state, but perhaps the best evidence of the ability of the Steps Walk to be a transformative experience for students is the high number of students who note this event as memorable in the alumni survey and who contribute or participate in the event after graduation.
Our long term goal for this project is two-fold. First: that Steps Walk continues to have a positive impact on the greater Green Bay community as well as the students as UW Green Bay. We also hope that one day the Steps Walk will be implemented on other college campuses throughout Wisconsin, as a way for other campuses to respond to the national Make a Difference Day.
Please email us at cfpa@uwgb.edu
Faculty/staff supervisors: Lora Warner at 465-2404 warnerl@uwgb.edu OR Ashley Heath at 465-2608 heatha@uwgb.edu
