New community-service day offered biennially opposite Community Day

The university is introducing a new community-service day program to encourage Stanford faculty, staff and students to volunteer their services in the surrounding communities. The new program, tentatively set for Friday, April 28, will include "release time" for staff members, meaning that they will be paid their regular salaries that day. Faculty, students and alumni also will be invited to participate.

Called Stanford Community Partnership Day, the program will be held opposite Community Day at Stanford, the free university open house held in the spring. The next Community Day is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, April 15, 2007. Community Day, which has been held for four years, will become a biennial event. Interest in Community Day has increased over the past four years, attracting 12,000 people in 2005.

"Through Community Day, we've encouraged our neighbors to visit us on campus to enjoy faculty lectures, music performances, art displays, a health fair, children's activities and the like," said Alan Acosta, associate vice president for public affairs. "We want to complement that open house by encouraging faculty, staff and students to go off campus and become more involved in the surrounding communities."

Acosta added, "Although we will be focusing our efforts on that one day, we hope to encourage a long-term commitment to community service among Stanford faculty, staff and students."

Organizers of Community Partnership Day hope to offer participants a choice among volunteer work projects involving the environment, education, health and homelessness. The volunteer efforts will focus on San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and specifically on the communities contiguous to Stanford. The event also will likely include a campus food and clothing donation drive.

In addition, Community Partnership Day will be closely aligned with the annual presentation of awards recognizing Stanford faculty, students and staff who volunteer their services. Those awards include the Community Partnership Awards, which highlight the ongoing efforts of successful community partnerships with the university, and the Miriam Aaron Roland Volunteer Service Prize, given to faculty by the Haas Center for Public Service.

For more information about Community Partnership Day—or to suggest a possible project—call Community Day at Stanford, at 724-2933.

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