Volunteer Fair connects community (Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)

The flagpole was a busy place to be Thursday.

More then 250 students stood outside fanning themselves, drinking water and eating snow cones. They were doing anything they could to cool down.

Why were students sweating voluntarily? For the Volunteer Fair.

The Learning and Community Involvement center held its annual Volunteer Fair for what Carol Clyde, director of the LCI office, said was the seventh or eighth time. But this one was a little different.

The Volunteer Fair is normally held in the Hughes-Trigg ballroom. Beth Sabella, a representative for Mosaic, an agency that serves children and adults with developmental disabilities, said she enjoyed the change of scenery. She has been coming to the fair for at least four years, and she thought this one was the best yet.

“The customer service was great this year. I hadn’t even parked my car before I had five guys from maintenance there to help me unload my stuff,” she said.

This year was Luann Golden’s first time out, and she said she hopes to come back next year. She also complimented the organization. The agent from Development Direct, an organization that serves people with developmental disabilities said there was an orientation before the actual fair to help show them how to connect with the students and their organizations on campus and that “It’s been fabulous, except for the heat.”

The fair had more than 15 booths set up with more than 50 agencies to recruit more volunteers. The booths were set up so that agencies with similar goals could be grouped together, something Sabella really liked. She said they had never done it that way before, and it gave the agencies a chance to meet others with similar interests and to do some networking.

Another helpful tool the LCI provided this year was a list of all of the agencies that were at the fair, along with their contact information. This made it a little easier for students to see who was there and what they were representing.

Roshel Aghassi, a student in Clyde’s leadership class, thought the fair was a really good idea. She said in her class the students are required to volunteer. However, she wasn’t just doing it because she had to.

“I am just kind of looking at everything here-I really want to make a difference in my community,” she said. She especially likes working with pregnant teenagers and children with learning disabilities.

This was Laura Maldonado’s first year to attend as well. The Dallas Scores agent said her organization was getting great responses. She talked to 10 students within the first hour who were interested in volunteering for Dallas Scores.

“10 is a good number for anyone,” she said.