Thumbs up to the Mavs in Action volunteer group at Minnesota State University and community partners who work together to provide valuable community service in the Greater Mankato area.
The MSU group offers students a chance to volunteer in the community and learn leadership skills at the same time. They provide volunteer hours for everything from clothing fundraisers to helping with food security.
They also focus on environmental awareness and impact, community partnering and children’s programming with a focus on literacy. The group assisted MY Place youth center with a fundraising drive to buy socks and underwear for children and helped organize a book giveaway.
In all, the group volunteered 523 hours in 2025, which equates to $20,415 worth in time and materials. So far in 2026, the group has volunteered 278 hours, equal to $10,608.
The group also was part of the volunteering at MY Place that uses about 300 hours a month. Volunteers save the center about $150,000 a year.
Mavs in Action also organized a book drive that donated 400 books to children the first year but far surpassed that the second year with 2,000 books as part of National Reading Month. An estimated 900 books were distributed to the after-school reading program at MY Place and the rest to free libraries around the region.
The MSU program includes majors in accounting, aviation, mental health counseling and teaching. The goal is to create a peer-to-peer mentorship model so students see other students doing good things, said group adviser Crystal Watts.
Mavs in Action is another example of the impact MSU and its students can make in the community. It also benefits students exposing them to community needs and leadership opportunities.
Free light repair fosters road safety
Thumbs up to Lights On! MN and Mankato police for reviving a program that helps motorists pay for broken taillights and other safety issues as a way to not punish unsafe driving but help encourage safe driving.
The program calls for offering vouchers up to $250 for 100 people stopped by police needing to fix a headlamp or taillight without getting a ticket. The effort helps maintain public safety on the roads while offering a repair for those who may not be able to afford it.
The concept was developed by the nonprofit Microgrants that is aimed at helping needy people find self-sufficiency. It originated after the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, a motorist who was killed on a police stop for a broken brake light.
Microgrants has raised $8,000 for the program and is endorsed by many police chiefs across the country. More than 13,900 vouchers have been provided with 173 law enforcement agencies and 437 auto-repair shops in 23 states participating.
It’s a good way to give motorists a bit of a break from an expensive ticket and at the same time create good will between the community and law enforcement.
Gardening volunteers help us grow
Thumbs up to the volunteer gardeners of the Living Earth Center and others for their efforts to cull seeds from last year’s crops as a way to offer free seeds to backyard gardeners and for the community gardens at Living Earth Center and the Blue Earth County Community Farm.
The program at Living Earth also engages local schools, day cares and camps in a program called Seeds to Sauce that teaches students about gardening and where their food comes from.
They get the seeds started in the center’s winter grow room and are looking for volunteers to help with that effort.
The program offers garden basics and promotes healthy and delicious meals made with fresh produce. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture awarded a $60,000 multi-year grant to help cover transportation expenses for schools and others for getting students to their assigned garden plots.
The program not only engages students to learn where their food comes from and what it takes to grow fresh produce, but also gives them environmental and sustainability lessons.
Learning to grow your own food and gardening have several physical and mental health benefits, according to the Mayo Clinic. Gardening improves your diet by adding healthy fruit and vegetables to it. And the activity provides exercise and communing with nature for mental health benefits. And if you’re part of a community garden, you also gain by socializing with fellow gardeners.