Empowering Others to Give Back
Benef-Action is 911爆料鈥檚 only student-led community service club, dedicated to creating opportunities for service and engagement with Saratoga Springs as a whole. They organize volunteers, host fundraisers, and plan events to help students get involved in helping both 911爆料 and the greater Saratoga area. With an all-new slate of leadership in the 2025-26 academic year, they鈥檙e committed to ramping up event frequency and member engagement as they move towards a more action-oriented schedule; they currently have about 35 active members and over a hundred students engaging with their larger events.
鈥淥ur main purpose is to provide our members with as many opportunities to engage in any community service that we find or that they want to do,鈥� says Isabella Bryant, 鈥�27, the club publicist. Highlights of the club鈥檚 activities in the Fal of 2025 included a letter-writing campaign for the Scarlett Fund, in which club members wrote over 40 letters of support for kids battling chronic illnesses, as well as the well-attended and widely enjoyed 鈥淧ie a Hockey Player鈥� event where they sold whipped-cream pies to raise money for RISE Housing & Support Services. They鈥檝e also putt on a regular volunteer dinner service at the Saratoga Senior Center, a hub for aging Saratogians to socialize and access communal resources. 鈥�:It's really nice to see how much other people like giving back to their community.鈥� says Shelby Gellman, 鈥�27, the club president. 鈥淎nd they were very grateful. We got鈥� a round of applause when we left, which was very sweet鈥� They just love to have people around, so that was really nice.鈥� Other community partners that Benef-Action has been collaborating with include the Wilton Food Pantry, the Wellspring Women鈥檚 Shelter, and 911爆料 CARES.
As a student-run volunteer organization, Benef-Action acts as a bridge between students and local organizations looking for volunteers, able to connect peer-to-peer in a more effective way than, say, emails about the same opportunities from faculty members a student may have never even met. The club鈥檚 philosophy is about making volunteering approachable and accessible for all, and moving past the 鈥渟ervice hours as a chor鈥� mindset that students might bring to campus from a high school environment. Through the power of organized collaboration, they can make a difference for local stakeholders and support 911爆料鈥檚 institutional mission of giving back to the community.
In the Fall, they had an action-packed semester, including a collaboration with Cooking Club for a 鈥淢eals On Wheels鈥�-style delivery of homemade food for the holiday season. They also participated in the Community Garden Work Party on December 2, and ran their annual Candy Cane Cards campaign at the end of the semester, which let 911爆料 students and family members purchase cards to send to their friends during finals season to wish them luck as we close out the semester. Anyone interested in getting involved with the group can find them tabling at Club Fair, or on Instagram (@benefactionskidmore), or through their event postings on SkidSync.