Niles West hosted the annual Volunteer Fair outside of the cafeteria during lunch periods on Wednesday, Nov. 30.

“The jobs fair is when community agencies come and visit Niles West so that students can sign up to volunteer wherever they choose to,” said Director of Student Activities, Jessica Ogulnik. “The main purpose is to help kids get involved.”

A few volunteer agencies that attended were the Council for Jewish Elderly, the American Cancer Society, the Suburban Society, the ELL Parents Center, and the Lutheran General Hospital, among others.

Junior Maridsa Choute, who was a participant in the volunteer fair, signed up for the Morton Grove Public Library and the American Cancer Society.

“Most of the people who worked at the volunteer booths were very helpful. They were conversational and they described what it was like to volunteer,” said Choute.

Although Ogulnik’s main goal for students participating in the volunteer fair is to get them involved, there is another aspect to volunteering . In the ILP section of Pinnacle, there is an iCare option.

“All you have to do is write a paragraph on what you did, and a provide a contact number of the agency or person you volunteered for so that I can verify that you were actually there,” Ogulnik said.

At the end of their senior year, the students with a certain amount of hours will receive a special cord to wear with their gown on graduation day in order to be recognized on their hard work in giving back to the community.

Ogulnik said her goal is to have students use iCare to log in their daily volunteer hours.

The logistics on when iCare will be put into use, or how many hours will be required to be recognized at graduation have not been sorted out yet, but any confusion should be discussed with Ms. Ogulnik in her office.