Stanford's new Community Partnership Day to send more than 200 faculty, staff, students and alumni volunteers to local communities

Stanford University's first Community Partnership Day on Friday, April 28, will send more than 200 faculty, staff, student and alumni volunteers into the surrounding communities of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Menlo Park and Redwood City to perform volunteer service for government and non-profit organizations.

The new program includes "release time" for staff members, meaning that they will be paid their regular salaries by Stanford for the time they spend volunteering.

Among the organizations serving Palo Alto that are included in the day are Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, Urban Ministry, the Community Breast Health Project, Habitat Restoration for Magic and the Community Association for Rehabilitation. Other area programs include the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto, the City of Mountain View at Shoreline Park and the Redwood City Education Foundation.

During the evening of April 28, Stanford Dining Services will provide a dinner to needy individuals served by Urban Ministry of Palo Alto at Clara-Mateo Alliance. On Saturday, April 29, members of Stanford's Facilities Operations will participate in a Re-Building Together project at Family Connections in Menlo Park.

In addition, on April 28, the university will hold a campus-wide food drive for the Second Harvest Food Bank.

Stanford Community Partnership Day will be held biennially, alternating with Community Day at Stanford, which is a springtime university open house. The next Community Day is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, April 15, 2007. Community Day, which has been held each spring for four years, also will become a biennial event.

"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, Stanford 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."

Community Partnership Day is being held in conjunction 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 Stanford Community Partnership Day, call Community Day at Stanford at (650) 724-2933 or visit the web site at http://communityday.stanford.edu.

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