The large turnout of students at the volunteer fair at the University of Otago last week might surprise some because the image of Otago students is not always edifying.
It is an unfair image, because it in no way reflects the reality of the vast majority of students in this city.
The wonderful response should not be a revelation because students have always been an important part of the volunteer scene.
What is changing is the profile and the specific sense of ''volunteering''.
Also, it could well be numbers are increasing with more overt and intentional ''volunteering''.
Certainly, an initiative like the fair provides easy and encouraging opportunities that might otherwise be lost.
It can bridge the often broad gap between vague good intentions and specific action, and showcases worthwhile organisations looking for assistance.
The University of Otago and Dunedin North have a national reputation as party central.
A small number of fools take this far too far, with disorder and couch burning inevitably leading to bad publicity as the university sees it.
Many parents around New Zealand, therefore, associate Otago with excess drinking.
No doubt, too, the campus atmosphere and fun enthuses many prospective students if not always their mothers and fathers.
Hopefully, this can be kept in perspective.
Alcohol issues are embedded throughout our society and in all our universities, not just in Dunedin.
Students mix and congregate, generally, with those of like mind, and vast numbers of the 20,000 will drink moderately, lightly or not at all.
For others, the drinking/hard partying is a temporary phase between and before they knuckle down with their laptops.
It should also be again acknowledged that a significant slice of any trouble these days is caused by non-student interlopers into the North End.
Many organisations in Dunedin rely on students as participants and volunteers and have done so for years.
This extends through sports clubs, music and groups such as scouting. Although students' tenure in the city is limited, many do carry on with their interests from school days.
How fantastic, for example, it is for young gymnasts to be coached by a young student rather than parents and stalwarts carrying all the load.
Awareness of student volunteering came to the fore following the work of the Student Volunteer Army after the Christchurch earthquakes.
The University of Otago now has its own University Volunteering Centre, which organised the fair along with the Otago University Students' Association.
By the end of the fair, 24 organisations had signed up about 800 volunteers.
Even if some fail to follow through, that is an impressive number, particularly as it is in addition to other activities and personal initiatives already undertaken.
Momentum is being created.
Volunteering is becoming the thing to do.
Friends encourage each other and, no doubt, report on the joys and satisfaction of helping others.
While there will, inevitably, be frustrations and mismatches on all sides, volunteering, almost always, is good for all concerned.
As well, prospective employers are likely to look favourably on such involvement and efforts.
In fact, ''community service'' in one way or another should be part of every day and just about every person's ethos, and often this is so.
It might surprise just how widespread such activity is, even when it is not adorned by the labels ''volunteering'' or ''community service''.
This might be through various organisations and clubs or might simply be helping a neighbour.
Again, just as for the students, those who help others - even when it might sometimes feel like too much effort - are themselves beneficiaries.
Human beings have evolved in such a way that such altruism potentially provides rich rewards for the ''giver''.
Supposedly, we live in a mean, much more self-centred world than in previous generations.
Belying that is the amount of selfless service, co-operation and hard work that goes on - whether by students or by the wider public.
