2025 Husky Committed Service Week Recap
5/29/2025
SEATTLE – University of Washington student-athletes, coaches and staff teamed up with 15 organizations over a five-day span as part of the athletic department’s annual Husky Committed Service Week.
Gallery: Husky Heroes presented by Symetra
The week began with Husky Heroes, a new initiative in partnership with Symetra, designed to bring together individuals with disabilities and their families from local organizations for a day of socializing and engaging in sports with Husky student-athletes and staff. The goal was to provide a memorable experience for participants while also reinforcing the values of service, leadership, and community engagement that define Husky Athletics.
A group went to PAWS, where volunteers helped with landscaping and woodchip spreading. PAWS is people helping cats, dogs and wild animals go home and thrive – whether home is the family room or the forest. The organization does this by rehabilitating orphaned and injured wildlife, sheltering and adopting homeless cats and dogs, and educating the community to inspire compassionate action for animals.
Several projects took place close to home as a group cleaned garbage and restored the wetland areas north of Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium while other groups volunteered for Adopt a Street, making a commitment to clean up litter along streets surrounding campus.
Groups of student-athletes and staff visited patients at nearby Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Volunteers assisted staff at the Jubilee Women’s Center with facilities support – yardwork, simple maintenance, kitchen clean up and related projects. Jubilee Women’s Center opened in the fall of 1983 and is believed to be Seattle’s first transitional home for women. Jubilee offers residents a supportive housing community in which to heal from crisis and domestic abuse and get back on their feet.
I volunteered for as many Husky Service Week activities as I could because I believe that giving my time and energy is one of the biggest ways to make a difference. Not just making a difference in our community but also within myself. Helping others whenever I can in any capacity gives me so much joy and fulfillment!Women's tennis sophomore Alexia Jacobs
Among the other service projects, volunteers sorted and processed incoming donations, put tags on clothing, and prepared the store for shopping days at Treehouse. Started in 1988, Treehouse is the only nonprofit in Washington state focused on the specific educational, material and financial needs of youth in foster care.
Across the street from the athletics village at the Haring Center, another few groups supported recess by supervising and engaging with kids and cleaned gym mats and outdoor play areas. The Haring Center began as the Pilot School in 1964. The Pilot School, staffed by University of Washington faculty, focused its work on education, rehabilitation, and family advocacy for children with neurological injuries.
At Mary’s Place, Huskies helped prepare and provide dinner service for the two-parent families, single parents of all genders, extended families, and families with pets who find comfort in the shelter.