This year’s Back the Bend student service day, held Saturday, invited students to “Share Your Light” by giving their time and talents to local nonprofits across South Bend.
Led by Notre Dame’s Student Government, the initiative connects students from Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College with community partners. About 500 students took part, supporting 25 nonprofits through a mix of indoor and outdoor spring projects.
For sophomore Owen McDonald, who served as Student Government’s director of community outreach during the 2025-26 academic year, Back the Bend was the culmination of months of preparation. He addressed his fellow students who assembled at Stepan Center before being dispatched into the community on 15 buses.
“Right now, there’s a lot of darkness and division in the world and it can be hard,” McDonald said. “We can feel hopeless, but as the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, said, ‘darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.’ Each of you has a light inside of you. As members of the Notre Dame community, we are called to go out and share that light with others and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
For students, Back the Bend also shed a light on the depth of engagement that exists between Notre Dame and the community.
Andee Huxhold, executive director of Dismas House, welcomed a crew of 12 Notre Dame students to the group home, where individuals find stability, support, and belonging after incarceration.
“Our relationship with Notre Dame has been dynamic,” Huxhold said after offering the students a tour of the historic house in South Bend’s Monroe Park neighborhood. “It was really neat to be able to share all the different ways Notre Dame has touched our home and program.”
The tour included a stop in the large, recently renovated kitchen that features a professional grade stove and granite countertops.
“The kitchen was designed by students in Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, and the Philanthropy and the Common Good class, over two years, donated $18,000 towards the kitchen project. Student groups also come out. Keenan Hall residents come here on Mondays and Mercy Works comes on Wednesdays, so we have Notre Dame students here every week,” Huxhold said, adding that the University has also contributed in a unique way to the new Dismas Hub, three blocks from the home.
“Through a partnership with the Institute for Social Concerns, we were able, over the course of 10 weeks, to sit with students who met with our residents, our alumni, and other justice-impacted individuals in the area. We talked about what re-entry really looks like here in South Bend and, with a muralist, they translated that dialogue into this beautiful 80 foot by 30 foot mural that is a joy to us and the whole neighborhood.”
On Saturday, the Back the Bend students removed a deck from the back of Dismas House. The demolition was necessary to make room for a handicap-accessible back entrance and more green space.
“It is important to address residents’ mental health and well-being, and we know one of the things that is important is to have green space. We have a decent-sized backyard for being in the city and there’s so much we can do with it. We’re hoping to put in a patio here and some flower gardens and a fire pit.”
A couple neighborhoods away, another Back the Bend group of volunteers spread mulch at Kelly Park in the Northeast Neighborhood. Up the street at the Robinson Community Learning Center, meanwhile, students were paired with senior citizens for a bus trip to two new centers operated by South Bend’s Venues Parks & Arts.
“We’re going to go see the new Martin Luther King Dream Center and the Raclin Murphy Encore Center, which is the new extension of the Morris Performing Arts Center.” said Lu Ella Webster, RCLC’s adult programs coordinator. “The students will learn a little bit about the city, the neighborhood, and RCLC and they can meet some of our senior citizens who have been participating in programs at RCLC for many, many years. It’s a good intergenerational activity and perhaps we can get some pen pals out of this.”
At the opening of Back the Bend, Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., president of Notre Dame, prayed with students, “We pray that we might deepen our connection to people in and beyond the city of South Bend…” By day’s end—no matter the service assignment or location—students could confidently say, mission accomplished.
Originally published by at publicaffairs.nd.edu on April 01, 2026.