HELENA — The Montana Campus Network for Civic Engagement hosted its annual meeting at Carroll College in Helena on Tuesday, and engaged in a volunteer activity within the community where their meetings are held.

The Montana Campus Network is made up of 18 colleges, including private and tribal colleges.

Josh Vanek, the network's executive director says, "Higher education has a lot of important roles to play in our society, especially getting students involved in community, so we support student volunteerism, civic engagement, and anything that supports our democracy."

The goals of the network are to build up statewide service programs and provide more opportunities to get students involved in their community with volunteer work.

“We represent around 40,000 students in Montana and these students go on to do incredible things as far as service, public engagement, and just helping to make the world a better place to be," says Carroll College president, Dr. John Cech.

Each year, based on what university the civic engagement meeting is held, the service project completed by the executive board and CEO council will be in the college’s home community.

On Tuesday members spent their time bagging oats at Helena Food Share.

"We are doing a service project together to remember why we do this thing," Vanek says.

Although colleges have their rivalries and are scattered across the state, service is a unifying force.

Cech bagged oats by the chancellor of Montana Tech and says, “This is an example of Montana Tech and Carroll working together for the good of a community…go diggers…go saints.”