The third annual Emory Cares International Service Day last fall drew its highest number of participants yet, with more than four hundred alumni, parents, friends, and family members in sixteen different cities joining in the twenty wide-ranging service projects.

After participating in the Miami project last year, President James W. Wagner and his wife, Debbie, helped sort food and box Thanksgiving dinners for the Self-Help and Resource Exchange (SHARE) in Philadelphia, where volunteers were led by Andrea Tanner 95C.

In Atlanta, volunteers supported five separate efforts with non-profits including the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Stand Up for Kids, the Atlanta Union Mission, the Community Food Bank, and MedShare, Emory Cares’ first joint venture with the School of Nursing. In another first this year, Oxford College joined in Emory Cares with a donation drive and packaging of items for children entering foster homes; Oxford volunteers numbered more than fifty, led by Tammy Camfield 89Ox 91C.

“We had a great turnout for Oxford’s Emory Cares,” Camfield says. “It was great to see everyone working together.”

While many of the food bank projects provided assistance to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita victims, Dallas volunteers had a more direct connection with those affected by the hurricanes: working with the Dallas Furniture Bank, they staffed a warehouse sale for displaced residents in the Dallas area.

Other metropolitan areas that saw Emory Cares projects included Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, South Florida, and Washington, D.C. Internationally, Emory volunteers joined forces in London and Barcelona.

“The London event was just wonderful,” says Julia Morgan Williams, director of external relations for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, who received a heartfelt letter of thanks from Oxfam, the non-profit organization the London project benefited. “The U.K. alumni and I were really pleased with the participation and really good spirit.”

—P.P.P.