15,000 hours. That's roughly 89 weeks, 625 days or 1.7 years. It's also the number of volunteer hours more than 500 St. Ambrose University students logged in a seven-month span last school year. And that's counting only the hours officials tracked.

"Community service is at the heart of what we are," said Stella O'Rourke, St. Ambrose campus minister for volunteerism and interfaith outreach. "Our students come to us knowing that; it's part of the reason they come to St. Ambrose."

The college works with community agencies to find what kind of needs exist. Some instructors incorporate volunteerism into their classes, making it a requirement. Student clubs, athletic groups and other campus organizations often take the lead organizing work in the community. Sometimes, students bring their own ideas of ways to help others and set them in motion, O'Rourke said.

Without the help of St. Ambrose students, some community leaders say they wouldn't be able to deliver their services to the needy.

"We could not exist without them," said Dennis Flaherty, business manager at St. Anthony's Church. "They are just fantastic. I can't express it any other way. They go about their work joyfully and then thank us for the experience."

Each year at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, St. Anthony's Church delivers 1,500 food baskets filled with ingredients for a big holiday meal to needy families in Davenport. The church relies on the St. Ambrose basketball team to unload the food from a truck and load it into cars. Students then help deliver the meals.

"I got to deliver the baskets," said John Hammer, 22, a St. Ambrose student. "Just being able to knock on those different doors with baskets of food and to see the looks on their faces - it was neat. It was just as much of a blessing for me as it was for them."

The volunteer work Chad Driscoll, who graduated from St. Ambrose last winter, did while at the college resulted in a full-time job.

Driscoll started a Big Brothers Big Sisters program on-campus three years ago. Today, it matches as many as 60 St. Ambrose students with children from the surrounding area. Every other Tuesday, the mentors meet with their mentees for two hours to do a variety of activities at the school.

When Driscoll graduated, he became the special events coordinator for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

"Some of the reasons I do it and feel it is important is that I have been blessed with a lot of things," Driscoll said. "If I can try to give back by being a mentor to a child and provide a little friendship, support and encouragement, it is a good thing, because I know how much it helps me grow into a good citizen and professional."