Dear Students,

Community service represents a critical part of the University of Illinois culture. I am proud that so many of you take part in service activities through fraternities and sororities, registered student organizations, service learning courses and so many other avenues. This is just one of the things that brings our Illinois family together and makes our local community such a vibrant place to live.

The second annual Community & Campus Day of Service will be held on Saturday, April 5th at Memorial Stadium to kick off National Volunteer Week, April 6-12. Last year at the inaugural event, we had more than 1,500 volunteers for a number of projects, one of which eventually delivered 146,000 meals to the Eastern Illinois Foodbank for the hungry right here in our community. I encourage you to get involved in this year’s Day of Service with your friends, our faculty and staff, and members of our community.

Opportunities for volunteering will include:

• Another food packaging project on April 5^th with a goal of providing 147,000 meals to Eastern Illinois Foodbank (1,000 meals for each year of the University’s public engagement mission)
• Service projects throughout Champaign-Urbana as part of Austin’s Day on April 12
• Coming up with a service project of your own during National Volunteer Week
• Visit CUVolunteer.org for additional volunteer opportunities (individual or group)

Please be sure to report any group or individual community service outside of the offered projects so we can count the hours you spend in the Community & Campus Day of Service total throughout National Volunteer Week. You can find information on how to add your service on the campus site linked below. Remember that the projects are open to anyone in the community, and several are family friendly (children 5 years of age and up can participate in food packaging), so invite others to join you! More information is available at go.illinois.edu/dayofservice.

Thank you for your dedication to service in the local community and beyond. I hope to see many of you take part in the Day of Service and National Volunteer Week activities this spring.

Sincerely,

Phyllis M. Wise
Chancellor