Calling all Ducks: The UO’s newest arrivals need you

Next month, 4,000 new Ducks will need help moving into their new campus homes, which means students, faculty, staff and alumni are needed for the fourth annual Unpack the Quack event Sept. 25. Volunteers assisting with the big move-in day provide more than just manual labor; they help create a welcoming environment for new students.

Helpers are needed to move boxes and greet new Ducks and their families. Volunteers attend a one-hour orientation Sept. 24 and are asked to commit to a 2½-hour shift on Sept. 25. All volunteers will receive a free meal voucher in exchange for their help, said Heather Kropf, assistant director of residence life.

Volunteers are welcome to work more than one shift. Kropf said welcoming new Ducks is a great way to get a sense of the UO community.

“It’s successful no matter the number of people we have,” she said.

Kropf said a good number of volunteers on move-in day would be around 500.

“We value our volunteers who welcome people to campus,” she said.

Brent MacCluer, a UO alumnus and outgoing president of the alumni group Lane County Ducks, has volunteered with Unpack the Quack since it began in 2011. MacCluer remembers his parents dropping him off when he began his freshman year at the UO and enjoys helping new Ducks feel welcomed.

MacCluer volunteers as a mover and he’s moved everything from boxes and lacrosse sticks to cans of soup, he said. Helping students and parents start their experience on a positive note at UO is why MacCluer continues to volunteer.

“The pace changes and the cars change, but they’ll still need help hauling stuff up and down the stairs,” he said.

Kropf thinks the volunteer program has created a welcoming environment for new students. She said it’s been a beneficial event in the past and is a more fun and less chaotic way to assist students on move-in day.

For more information about volunteering for Unpack the Quack, visit the website here.

―By Corinne Boyer, Public Affairs Communications intern