Emory Cares around the world

South Korea is one of eight foreign countries celebrating Emory Cares International Service Day with alumni projects. For opportunities to get involved clser to home (provided that home is in the United States), visit the Emory Cares website.

Saturday, November 14 marks the seventh annual celebration of Emory Cares International Service Day, the Emory Alumni Association's (EAA) signature service program. Last year, nearly 1,000 members of the University community took part in Emory Cares service projects, and this year, with nearly 40 cities in nine countries on five continents taking part, that number is sure to grow and many worthy causes will benefit.
           
“I got involved in Emory Cares as soon as I heard about it,” said Kat Hedrick 89B, project coordinator for a shoreline cleanup at White Rock Lake in Dallas. “I miss doing volunteer work, and it was a great chance to reconnect with local Emory alumni. I also like to bring my nephews each year, so that they can learn about colleges and universities outside of Texas.”
           
Dallas, of course, is just one of more than two dozen cities across the country hosting Emory Cares Day projects. For instance, in New York City, alumni will be staffing a soup kitchen; in Durham, NC, West Palm Beach, FL, and Waianae, HI, they will be building homes for Habitat for Humanity; in San Francisco and Washington, DC, they will volunteer at food banks. And that’s just a thumbnail sketch of the many types of opportunities Emory Cares provides.
           
“I love that energy that is created by the fact that the Emory community is doing something worldwide and that you are a part of something much bigger than yourself,” Hedrick said, touching on an important point. If 1,000 Emory alumni volunteer for Emory Cares, they will likely be helping 10,000 people with their efforts—probably more.
           
In Georgia, projects will be taking place in the city of Atlanta and suburban Roswell, as well as at Oxford College, which has hosted Emory Cares since the program's inception. In addition, the Caucus of Emory Black Alumni (CEBA) and Emory Gay and Lesbian Alumni (GALA) are partnering for a project.
           
“Emory’s ties to its Atlanta home are very strong, and the University is active in a variety of communities here,” said Kerry Gallo 11PH, administrator of Emory Cares for the EAA. “Emory’s campus is so large and our alumni community so spread out, it’s not easy to bring everyone together. Emory Cares is an ideal way to do not just that, but also give back to the wider community that has been so supportive of us.”
           
In recent years, the EAA has partnered with Volunteer Emory to encourage students to get involved, and hundreds have responded. In 2009, Emory’s campuswide partnerships have expanded to include a variety of student groups and Emory offices, as well as a corporate sponsor (The Coca-Cola Company), that is helping to provide souvenir t-shirts that will be worn by participants around the world on their day of service.
           
One of the key thoughts of Emory Cares is that the celebration is an “international” service day. And 2009 offers the most projects abroad ever, with alumni in Argentina, Hong Kong, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, South Africa, and South Korea hosting Emory Cares projects.
           
“While an MBA student at Goizueta, I had the opportunity to take part in a couple of community projects and experience firsthand the impact of groups of individuals on other people’s lives,” said Barcelona’s project coordinator Carlos Hornstein 05MBA.
           
One of those projects included a trip to Mali, one of the world’s poorest countries.
Touched by what he witnessed, Hornstein founded the Global Play Foundation.
           
Information about each service project can be found on the EAA’s Emory Cares webpage. Also included is registration information and links to photos from previous years.—Eric Rangus