A few years ago, one Kent State administrator told a Daily Kent Stater reporter:

“If you’re a student, most of you have more free time than you did during your high school experience. Figure out a way to give something back. Do something volunteering-wise.”

His words are still true — perhaps even more so now as cold weather can make the vulnerable even more vulnerable.

If there’s one thing winter break is good for, it’s giving students and faculty a reprieve from the daily grind. So we encourage them to use that time and help someone who needs it.

Here’s a list of specific places and ways to help in the next few weeks, courtesy of the United Way of Summit County and Hands On Northeast Ohio:

• The Akron Urban League: Assist with a Santa breakfast Dec. 18, including face painting and serving breakfast to children.
• American Red Cross: Help donors give blood Dec. 23, or assemble goodie bags for them Dec. 22.
• Child Guidance & Family Solutions: Adopt a family for the holidays, and provide them with special needs and wants.
• Family and Community Services, Inc.: If you have a background in finance, teach free financial literacy classes in Summit County to groups of people.
• Rockynol Retirement Commmunity: Call the weekly bingo game on Thursdays.
• Cleveland Foodbank: Sort and serve food Dec. 15 and 29 and Jan. 5.
• OPEN M: Mentor low-income graduates from the Getting Ahead program, which helps individuals escape poverty.
• Mothers Assisting Mothers: Help wrap gifts from Dec. 18 to 24.
• Salvation Army of Summit County: Assist in registering families looking for assistance during the holidays Dec. 9.

• The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.