Central ND News

From pumpkin patches to shelters and zoos, University of Mary students, faculty, and staff are participating in the 11th Annual Day of Service on Wednesday, October 8, 2025. This event, part of the university’s Homecoming Week, is the largest one-day volunteer initiative in North Dakota’s history.

A total of 1,502 volunteers are involved this year, working with 76 organizations. The reach of the event extends beyond Bismarck-Mandan to locations such as Fort Yates, Mary College at Arizona State University, Rome in Italy, and even includes second-grade students at St. Mary’s Grade School in Bismarck.

The day starts at 8 a.m. with a candlelight procession into the McDowell Activity Center for an All-School Mass and commissioning ceremony. Breakfast follows before service projects run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The day concludes with a Homecoming feast and coronation events in the evening.

Classes are canceled so that all members of the university can participate in service activities. The Day of Service is entirely organized by students who spend months preparing for it.

“This year’s theme — ‘Hope is the beacon that shines in the darkness,’ taken from St. Bonaventure and the Jubilee Year of Hope — is guiding us as we go forth,” said Ava Yurczyk, senior respiratory therapy major from Seattle, Washington, and student coordinator for the event. “When I first said ‘yes’ to this position my freshman year, I never imagined this day would transform me as much as it has and convert my heart to be radically available. Each year, it is the candlelight Mass that strikes me most. There is something incredibly beautiful about walking into the auditorium to find six hundred students and staff singing before Mass in pure candlelight, the room only growing brighter as more individuals come together to serve as one. That is who the University of Mary is. We are united as one community determined to serve those around us.”

Yurczyk added: “It is one of the most important days on campus each year where our students experience the true meaning of our Benedictine heritage and live out our mission to generously give our lives away in love and service to our neighbors.”

Volunteers will engage in various tasks including painting, cleaning, gardening, serving meals, and assisting organizations such as Papa’s Pumpkin Patch, Stepping Stone Ministry, Duppong Family Farm, Standing Rock, Salvation Army, United Way, Dakota Zoo, Diocese of Bismarck, Dakota Stage LTD, Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, Annunciation Monastery among others.

Service has been central to University of Mary since its founding by Benedictine Sisters in 1959.

Since its inception in 2014,the Day of Service has supported University of Mary's Vision 2030 initiative, which aims for students to become servant leaders with moral courage—a commitment intended to last beyond graduation.