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COVID-19 changed plans, but it wasn't going to cancel Buenafication Day 2020.

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By Ella Wiebusch and Olivia Wieseler

One day out of the year, students at Buena Vista University (BVU) are woken up to the sound of banging pots and pans, blaring music, and joyful shouting. While perhaps not everyone’s ideal alarm clock, this is a marked tradition of BVU’s Buenafication Day.


Since 1913, Buena Vista University (BVU) has held its annual “Buenafication Day” on campus and out in the community of Storm Lake. A long-standing tradition that embodies the University's motto of "Education for Service,” this day celebrates and encourages volunteer work and community service.


But this year, things were different.


With the COVID-19 pandemic putting a lot of activities to a standstill, much of the BVU community was unsure if Buenafication Day would still happen. But for the committee, it was just another creative challenge. COVID-19 wasn’t about to stop them from completing service projects both locally and around the country.


And it certainly wasn’t going to stop the university from waking students up with some noise. Following a raucous virtual wake-up, BVU President Josh Merchant spoke virtually about the history of the day via Twitter.


"In its earliest form, believe it or not, this day was called Hobo Day...It was a day for students to spruce up campus, and take care of the lawn and the buildings. Buenafication Day has become an event that we look forward to every year.”


In fact, it has become such a large part of the BVU identity that there was simply no way the 2020 committee would let it be cancelled. Instead, for the 107th year of Buenafication Day, students, faculty, staff and alumni brought the traditions to their home communities and virtually shared their work through photos, videos, and encouraging posts.


As a part of the Office of Community Engagement, Tawney Schreier led both the campus and city Buenafication Day planning committees.


“When we got the formal announcement that we were moving online for the rest of the semester, [Ashley] and I really just sat back and were like, this is one of the biggest campus traditions. What can we do to still engage all of our campus community members to impact our communities in a positive way?”


Schreier, along with Assistant Vice President of Student Success & Director of Community Engagement Ashley Farmer-Hanson, met with the planning committee of students and staff to figure out a way to make it happen.


“It was super important that we had Buenafication Day this year because not only was it a tradition that has been kept up for 100 years,” Senior Isabel Haas, a student committee member, explained, “but it has a huge impact on the community. I mean BVU’s motto is Education for Service, so it’s important that we uphold that with Buenafication Day.”


“Buenafication Day has been one of my favorite days at BV,” said Junior Wava Jarr, another committee member and a recent recipient of the Iowa and Minnesota Campus Compact President’s Engaged Campus Award for Student Leadership. “The traditions of it--ringing the bell, wake up call, the picnic--And the meaning behind it. I love community service and the efforts put forth by the faculty, staff, and students at BV to connect with others by serving.”


Especially now during this time of crisis across the country, the Office of Community Engagement and the Bueanfication Day 2020 committee felt it was important that they do everything within their power to provide resources for Beavers to serve their home communities.


“Buenafication Day mobilizes more than 3000 people each year and takes 11 and 1/2 months to plan,” shared Schreier. “We did extensive research surrounding safe and virtual service to ensure everyone had an opportunity to serve their community this year.” To spread the word, they even compiled a list of many different volunteer opportunities that can be safely participated in from a distance.


From there, Beavers of all ages took part in the week-long celebration by safely helping out their communities in whatever way they could. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni have shared evidence of their service using the hashtags #BeaversServe and #BVDay2020. For the Buenafication Day 2020 committee members, the participation has been encouraging.


“Our end goal was just to get people out there to do service on their own, and I feel like we have,” said Tatum Hoadley, a junior on the committee. “I feel like a lot of people not even in Student MOVE or other volunteer-based organizations have stepped up and shown that they do care about service as well.”


Because of the strange circumstances, Farmer-Hanson noticed that “a lot of people are thinking of new ways to get involved in their communities that they haven’t thought about before.” She and Schreier are hoping that future Buenaficaiton Days could actually incorporate some of what they’ve learned through this.


“We’ve been wanting to do this for a while and this is an opportunity for us to engage people all over the country, and while we didn’t want these conditions obviously, it paves a path where we can continue this from here on out to get everyone involved,” said Farmer-Hanson. “I think we’re really committed to this tradition and to get our campus out there to meet those needs.”


That sentiment seems to be shared by the BVU community, and it is why the 107th annual Buenafication Day could not be canceled.


“This year’s Buenafication Day is definitely different, but overall we still keep the tradition alive,” said Paige Vanderhoff, another junior on the committee and Student Senate President-elect. “Despite the fact that we cannot all be together, we can continue the tradition of Buenafication Day by not only doing this on campus and around Storm Lake but doing it in our home communities. I honestly love this tradition. It is totally one of my favorite things because it brings everybody together.”


Guy Tannenbaum and Autumn McClain contributed to reporting this article.

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