Carolina Alumni Review - January/February 2010

Clubs
Carolina Clubs Across U.S. Help Communities With Service Projects
Competition with UNC’s rivals still reaches those far
away from Chapel Hill. Alston
Mann ’05 already participated
in New York Cares Day. But
when he saw that other uni-
versities had alumni groups
involved, including Duke, he
knew he had to get the New

PHOTOS COURTESY SAN DIEGO CAROLINA CLUB

York Carolina Club involved as
well.

“I’m a freak about UNC,” says Mann, team leader for the event. “So when I saw everyone else had their alumni involved, I knew I had to get ours in there, too.”

One particular New York Cares Day fell on a weekend close to University Day, Oct. 12, when many alumni groups across the country participate in Tar Heel Service Day. This one took the volunteers into New York public schools, where about 25 of UNC’s alumni added fresh paint to the hallway of a Brooklyn school.

Competition with Duke also found a group of first-
graders in San Diego. Los Penasquitos Elementary
School has a “No Excuses University” program that
encourages every student’s desire to go to college.
Every grade adopts a university for the year and
learns about it. One of the first-grade classes picked

UNC, while the other class just down the hallway had adopted Duke. Melanie Flowers ’ 94 and Rachel Toler ’07, co-chairs of the San Diego Carolina Club, and many other alumni raised money to buy everyone in the class Carolina T-shirts and spent a couple of hours one day teaching them the fight song and letting them ask questions about UNC.

“It was fun and refreshing to see the students get
excited about it,” Toler says. “I’m glad we could
help them learn what opportunities were available
to them.”

The Orlando Carolina Club joined with 1,000
motorcyclists and many volunteers as part of the 15th

For their Tar Heel Service Day, San Diego Carolina Club members participated in the “No Excuses University” at Los Penasquitos Elementary School. The program encourages students to aim for going to college and invites in alumni from several universities to teach students about their alma maters. Alumni gave all their first-grade students a Carolina T-shirt and taught them the fight song, among other activities.

Annual Ride for Children. The motorcyclists, who paid money to participate, rode from the Daytona Harley-Davidson at Destination Daytona to Camp Boggy Creek, a camp for kids with chronic illnesses that is supported completely through donations.

Robert Page IV ’ 90, president of the Austin Carolina Club, invited his alumni group to participate with him in the Texas Chainsaw Manicure at Down Home Ranch. Every year, Page works with the ranch, which was created for people with Down syndrome to work and live on the ranch or attend summer camps.

Carolina’s alumni helped the camp serve lunch as
well as run the silent and live auctions at an event the
day before the ride. “It’s the first year we’ve done it, but
we would love to make it a yearly thing,” says Terri
Kyle ’ 84, the community service co-chair. “No family
that goes to that camp ever pays a penny, and it’s great
“I was just really impressed with the family that runs
the ranch and their daughter, and the way they’re try-
ing to create a community out there,” Page says. “The
family is great, and I have been active at the ranch ever
since I met them.”
This year there was underbrush that could start a
fire, so the ranch and the forestry service joined with