Hands Out is a service organization that seeks to help the less fortunate people of Kent County through activities such as food drives, clothing drives, and special holiday projects. All of the food and clothing collected goes directly to pantries and churches here in Chestertown, connecting the students and their efforts to the community around them. Students also participate in off-campus activities such as walkathons, which raise money for causes such as homelessness and AIDS research. The primary goal is to foster relationships between the students of Washington College and the Kent County community through service and learning. Other activities have included collecting cans at Halloween, donating toys at Christmas, and hosting an Easter Egg hunt. We also try to do other activities like a soup kitchen or visiting residents at a nursing home.

Come to our meetings that occur on some Sundays at 8:00 P.M. in the White Cottage/Service House. We have a lot of activities lined up for the 2006-2007 school year! Be sure to visit the website to keep updated about our meetings and activities. You can also sign up to Hands Out's listserve to receive e-mails. For more information about Hands Out, feel free to contact any of the officers.

We, the students of Washington College are gathered together as the Hands Out Program on our campus in Chestertown, Maryland to facilitate student and faculty participation in local community service. Our four major tasks include matching interested students and faculty with organizations in need of volunteers, planning monthly activities in which the entire campus community can participate, publishing bi-annually a directory of community service opportunities, and generally increasing campus awareness of volunteerism. We hope that our activities unify the campus through broad participation of all groups of students. Students who participated in our activities during our first semester of existence comment that "it feels good to help people, seeing the results of our efforts makes it worthwhile, and the rewards far outweigh the effort." It is our hope that students not only participate in volunteer activities, but come to enjoy volunteering.