DATE: March 31, 2009

CONTACT: Reed Cole, 864-656-3605
lcole@clemson.edu

WRITER: Angela Nixon, 864-656-0382
anixon@clemson.edu

Clemson alumni to hold national community service day

CLEMSON — Clemson University alumni across the nation will participate in community service projects in Clemson’s first-ever National Alumni Day of Service Saturday, April 4.

The Clemson Alumni Association is encouraging Clemson clubs everywhere to take part in a service project in their communities over the weekend. Individual alumni who are not part of an area club also are encouraged to wear orange and volunteer.

“Clemson clubs have long been doing community service projects,” said Allen Martin of Vienna, Va., a director on Clemson’s Alumni Council and member of Clemson’s Class of 1969. “We hope this National Day of Service will be a catalyst for all of our clubs across the country to become involved in a project on the same day.”

Each Clemson Club can choose its own service project. In the Upstate, for example, the Anderson Area Clemson Club will help raise money for the Cancer Association of Anderson at the “Dabo ‘All In!’ Against Cancer Tennis Carnival” from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Brookstone Meadows Tennis Club in Anderson. The event will feature Clemson Head Football Coach Dabo Swinney, tennis lessons, a barbecue dinner and bluegrass music, with proceeds benefitting the Cancer Association of Anderson.

The Baton Rouge Clemson Club in Louisiana will help out the Connections for Life thrift store and the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. The Baltimore/Washington, D.C., club will work on beautification projects at Riverside Park in Baltimore and in residential areas in northwest Washington, D.C. Clemson clubs in Atlanta and Orlando will be working at community food bank programs, and the MidSouth Clemson Club in Memphis, Tenn., will work on city beautification projects.

“Clemson people have always been involved in improving their communities. The reason Clemson students and alumni are the happiest in the nation is because they serve others,” said Martin.

The National Alumni Day of Service is sponsored by the Clemson Alumni Association, which represents Clemson’s 110,000 alumni.