West Haven, Conn., October 2, 2009— More than 60 University of New Haven (UNH) staff, students and faculty members will paint, plant and spruce up the community during the United Way “Days of Caring” event in West Haven and New Haven on Wednesday, October 7. Days of Caring is an annual United Way of Greater New Haven event where volunteers work on one-time improvement projects, mentoring activities, collections and drives to benefit local agencies, schools, towns and parks.
The UNH Day of Caring will kick off at 8:15 a.m. with a breakfast donated by Sodexho and a welcome from UNH President Steven H. Kaplan. Heather Calabrese, COO of United Way of Greater New Haven, also will speak to the group, thanking them for their volunteer efforts and encouraging community involvement year round with donations to the United Way campaign and Diaper Drive. Volunteers will receive t-shirts at the breakfast and head out with their teams at 9:40 a.m. to nonprofit organizations in West Haven and New Haven. UNH projects include:
West Haven Child Development Center
Volunteers will help clean the Noble St. center’s preschool and infant-toddler playgrounds - weeding, raking, and fixing the garden areas.
New Haven Home Recovery
Volunteers will help paint, clean and landscape the New Haven Home Recovery shelter.
Catholic Charities, Inc., Archdiocese of Hartford
Catholic Charities is opening a new preschool on Grand Ave. in New Haven. Volunteers will help with painting and sprucing up the building.
Columbus House, Inc.
The inside of Sojourners' Place on Howard Place in New Haven needs a fresh coat of paint, and UNH volunteers will be lending a hand. Sojourners' Place provides transitional housing for women who are dually diagnosed with mental illness and substance addiction.
'r Kids Family Center
Volunteers will help spruce up the New Haven center’s exterior: pruning, mulching and installing a small fence around a flower bed.
A leader in experiential education, the University of New Haven is experiencing a historic and nationally recognized surge in enrollment. Founded in 1920, the University provides its students with a unique combination of solid liberal arts and real-world, hands-on professional training. UNH is a private university with an 80-acre main campus. The University has an enrollment of more than 5,200; approximately 1,700 graduate students and more than 3,500 undergraduates, 70 percent of whom reside in University housing. The University offers more than 80 undergraduate degrees and more than 25 graduate degrees through its five colleges, in fields such as sports management, nutrition, forensic science, music and sound recording, engineering, computer science and criminal justice. University College at UNH develops programs and courses to meet the emerging educational and training needs of educators, businesses and public and social agencies, focusing on academic excellence, convenience and flexibility. University of New Haven students study abroad through a variety of distinctive programs.
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