The volunteer aspect of the University’s
charitable giving campaign, EmoryGives, will kick off with a park
clean up Saturday morning, April 26. Dearborn Park is located in
Decatur about three minutes from campus at the corner of Midway
Road and Deerwood Circle, off S. Candler Road.
Earth Share of Georgia, one of EmoryGives charitable partners, is
organizing the cleanup, which has been put together with the Emory
community in mind.
“This is an event that has been specifically designed for
us,” said Michelle Smith, director of corporate giving. “This
is not something that is going to be populated by a lot of other
people.”
Employee Council is working with EmoryGives in administrating the
project, and the contact person for volunteering is council President
Cheryl Bowie (404-616-6345 or cheryl@radonc.emory.org).
From 9 a.m.–noon, volunteers will restore the park’s
forest and creek, remove trash, plant flowers and shrubbery, remove
ivy and undergrowth from the area and create a thicket for wildlife.
Breakfast will be provided, but participants are asked to bring
drinking water, work gloves, and digging and cutting implements
(like spades and hand-clippers), and to wear closed-toed shoes.
Following the project, a thank-you party will take place at the
Midtown Borders Bookstore at 650 Ponce de Leon Ave. Each volunteer
will receive a gift pack and share in post-cleanup snacks. Smith
said she hopes to recruit 25–30 volunteers.
Spring 2002 was the first time the University’s charitable
giving campaign included a volunteer component. A wide variety of
volunteer opportunities were listed on the campaign’s website,
complete with contact information and a list of upcoming projects.
But instead of actively sponsoring volunteer activities, EmoryGives
served only as a communicator. There was no way to know, other than
anecdotally, if anyone bothered to volunteer. Moving away from that
passivity was one of the goals for this year, Smith said.
“While people appreciated the information last year, it didn’t
jump start a lot of people to volunteer,” she said. “That’s
what we’d like to do and hope to do by focusing on a different
volunteer opportunity each month.”
So beginning with this month’s Dearborn Park cleanup and running
through August, EmoryGives will highlight a different volunteer
opportunity each month.
The next project will be a partnership with Georgia Special Olympics,
which will take place on campus May 30–June 1. Volunteers
will be needed to help with a variety of competitions including
aquatics, gymnastics and track and field.
In June, the focus will be Wesley Woods. Smith hasn’t set
a date for the project, but said volunteers will be needed for meal-time
assistance, working with the book cart and helping run bingo games,
to name a few jobs. Volunteers would have a choice of serving their
hour-long shift in the morning, afternoon or evening.
For more information about EmoryGives’ volunteer opportunities,
visit www.emory.emorygives.edu.
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