| October 16, 2007 |
Union volunteers to spruce up Schenectady Saturday
Toll Day 2006: Ryan Teller, son of Sergeant Supervisor Ed Teller, and Molly MacElroy, assistant director of residential life, work in front of the Schenectady police station. |
The campus community joins city leaders and area residents for its annual effort to spruce up Schenectady Saturday, Oct. 20 from 9:30 a.m. to noon.
John Calvin Toll Day, now in its 13th year, 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 of Schenectady.
Volunteers will assist with a variety of beautification projects throughout the city including weeding, hedge trimming, raking, reshaping bushes, removing rubbish and planting 2,000 daffodil bulbs. Schenectady Promise and DSIC will supply tools and equipment to clean and maintain areas of downtown Schenectady, including Vale Park, Center City and Jay Street.
Toll Day 2006: Phi Delta Theta member Tom DeMoya '08 works at the GE Triangle. |
Individual and group volunteers will convene in front of Old Chapel at 9:30 a.m. to receive an assignment and board the buses. Transportation to the various sites will be provided by the College and the first 100 students will receive a commemorative T-shirt.
Union encourages 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 already 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 at the Kenney Community Center at (518) 388-6609 or austind@union.edu.
