Rockhurst University Center for Service Learning

Held annually during Freshman Orientation, the Finucane Service Project introduces incoming students to the Jesuit philosophy of service to others. The project is named in memory of Father Bill Finucane, S.J., a former director of Campus Ministry at Rockhurst who devoted much of his life to service.

During the project, incoming freshmen, faculty, staff and alumni work in teams to clean schools and churches, tend community gardens, and make comfort items for children at area hospitals.

Special thanks to the Orientation Team Leaders and Coordinators for their hard work in making the 2008 Finucane Service Project a huge success! More than 500 students, staff, faculty, alumni, and Regents volunteered at 18 service sites throughout the city, calculating over 1,200 hours of service. During the project, each team took disposable pictures to take pictures during the project and made an album of the on-site photographs.

2008 Finucane Service Projects -- Special Thanks to the Community Organizations!

Blue Hills Family Life Center: cleaning shelves and organizing food pantry
Blue Hills Neighborhood: clean-up projects in the neighborhood
Children's Mercy Hospital: made HUGS blankets for children who are ill
Children's Village Day Care: painting walls of day care center
Cristo Rey Kansas City: spot cleaning classrooms, organizing clothes closet, and cleaning gym bleachers
De La Salle Education Center: clean-up projects in the classrooms and kitchen
Gordon Parks Elementary: light cleaning of classrooms
Hogan Prep Academy: outdoor cleaning and painting
Operation Breakthrough: cleaning projects inside classrooms
restart: organized and stuffed school supplies into backpacks for children who are homeless
Rose Brooks Center: yard work
Seton Center: cleaned up vacant lot adjacent to the center/school
St. Francis Xavier Church: outdoor clean up at the parish and the grade school next door
St. James Catholic Church: moving furniture, cleaning kitchen and rectory, and yardwork
St. James Food Pantry: cleaned the kitchen and dining areas
The Upper Room at St. Louis Church: clean-up both inside and outside to ready the literacy program for the start of the school year
Troostwood Garden: worked in the community garden
Tulips on Troost: clean-up along Troost to prepare for planting Tulip beds for Tulips on Troost