October 19, 2007: Volume 71, Number 7

For whom the day tolls: Spruce up Schenectady this Saturday

It’s that time of year again – time to take a day to spruce up Schenectady.

Members of the campus community will do just that on Saturday, Oct. 20, 9:30 a.m. – noon, when they join city leaders and area residents for the 13th annual John Calvin Toll Day.

Toll Day embodies the spirit of National Make a Difference Day (scheduled for Oct. 27), which is devoted to helping others and celebrating “neighbors helping neighbors.”

Coordinated by Union’s Kenney Community Center, the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation (DSIC), Schenectady Promise and local volunteers, Toll Day provides service learning opportunities and strengthens Union’s commitment to the city.

Volunteers will help beautify the city in a number of ways, from weeding, trimming hedges and raking to removing rubbish and planting 2000 daffodil bulbs. Schenectady Promise and DSIC will supply tools and equipment for the cooperative effort. Among the many sites being cleaned and maintained are Vale Park, Center City and Jay Street.

Individual and group volunteers will convene in front of the Old Chapel at 9:30 a.m. to receive an assignment and board buses to the various sites. The buses are provided by the College, and the first 100 students in line will receive a commemorative T-shirt.

Union is encouraging the Minerva Houses along with student, athletic, business and community groups to organize teams. Seneca House, Gamma Phi Beta Sorority and Phi Delta Theta Fraternity have committed their support in addition to RAs at College Park Hall and Richmond, who are organizing teams by floor.

John Calvin Toll Day is named for one of Union's first graduates in 1799.  It has been supported each year by Al Hill ‘46 and his wife, Perrie. Toll was the great-great-grandfather of Hill, a retired attorney from Buffalo who died earlier this year. The Hills created the fund to encourage Union students to undertake volunteer service.

For more information or to register, contact Don Austin, Americorps VISTA volunteer coordinator at the Kenney Community Center, 388-6609, ext. 6174 or austind@union.edu.

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