After a challenging year and a half, Batten students were especially excited to serve their community in person.

A tradition that goes back more than a decade, Batten Builds is an annual day of service for the Batten community. More than 200 people participated this year, assisting local nonprofits by painting, mulching, weeding, washing, filing, organizing, posting flyers, packing donation bags, and more. 

Both after the talks and after their volunteering assignments, many students approached nonprofit leaders to discuss longer term partnering opportunities. “It was great to see them forming those relationships,” said organizer Ned Flanagan (BA ’22). After a difficult year and a half, the day was a chance for new beginnings. Here are a few scenes captured during the event.  

More than 20 community organizations welcomed Batten students to their locations. “One thing I noticed was that the sites were really eager to work with us,” said Harini Peri (BA ’22), who coordinated the on-site volunteering. “Most of the sites we reached out to we ended up working with, and that was great—especially because students were so excited to get back into the community and volunteer again after so long.”

After the pandemic limited our involvement with organizations at UVA, it was really fun to organize a service event for the Batten community,” said McClain Moran (BA ’22), who helped arrange the speaker series. “It was a great way to start our year—in person, with our cohort.”

Rather than choosing where they wanted to volunteer, students were assigned to sites at random. “We have a tendency to gravitate toward places we’ve volunteered before or that feel more familiar or comfortable,” said organizer Harini Peri. “But when you randomize things, students have the opportunity to open their minds to something new.” 

For families with children undergoing serious medical treatment, Charlottesville’s Ronald MacDonald House offers a supportive sanctuary. Batten students were tasked with painting stones to line the pathway where visitors line up for the shuttle to the hospital. Volunteer Katie Cox (MPP ‘22) kept the families in mind as she worked. “I was trying to convey uplifting messages,” she said.

“At Batten, we learn a lot about how we can be more effective policy makers in the future,” said organizer Harini Peri. “So it was nice in a less formalized and more local way to ask, ‘What can we do now?’”

Although students came prepared to help with grounds maintenance at Camp Holiday Trails, a local community for children with medical needs, the temperatures soared into the 90s that day. Instead, the volunteers strung up lights in the camp’s dining hall. “They told us the kids really like having lights in the rafters at night because it looks like stars,” said organizer Ned Flanagan.

Before the launch of this year’s Batten Builds, student organizers worked with dean of students Jill Rockwell to come up with a theme for the event. “New horizons” felt like a good fit. “We knew that we would finally have the opportunity to engage in person again with these community partners,” organizer Ned Flanagan said, “so we thought, ‘Let's do it intentionally, with respect for the people we're working with—and also with a sense of gratitude and hope.’”