UNC Asheville continues its tradition of initiating all new students into the culture of community service through a massive community work day Monday, August 13. This fifth annual "Bulldog Day: A Time of Service" will send some 600 people to 32 service projects in the Asheville community.

Coordinated by UNCA’s Key Center for Service-Learning, the community service day is an important  part of the three-day new freshman orientation program that begins Saturday, August 11.

"Bulldog Day is a great example of what a public liberal arts university can contribute to its community," said Lloyd Weinberg, associate director of the Key Center for Service-Learning. 

Some 500 new freshmen, led by 100 faculty and staff, will take on a wide range of projects. Teams will assist students with art and writing projects at Claxton Elementary School, serve lunch at the Western Carolina Rescue Mission, paint at the Brooks Howell home, and complete yard work at the Lewis Rathburn Center.

Other UNCA teams will lend a hand to ABCCM, Asheville City Schools Preschool, Asheville Middle School, Caring for Children Preschools, Catholic Social Services, Dickson Elementary, Emma Elementary, Hall Fletcher Elementary, Hillcrest Head Start, Irene Wortham Center, Johnston Elementary, Jones Primary School, Meals on Wheels, Pisgah Legal Service, Quality Forward, Randolph Elementary School, Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club, Vance Elementary, Vanderbilt Apartments, Woodfin Headstart and the YWCA.

"Community organizations made quick responses to UNCA’s offer for service teams. All the agencies we served last year requested teams again this year and a few new agencies were added," said Jess Buhl, UNCA sophomore and Key Center for Service-Learning intern. "The campus community continues to offer help and is eager and excited to serve. It’s been wonderful to see how important volunteerism is to UNCA."

This is the fifth year that UNCA teams will go to Manna Food Bank. "We are tremendously grateful for the volunteers UNCA’s Bulldog Day brings," said Jeff Menzer, Manna Food Bank hunger educator and volunteer supervisor. "Many of the UNCA students who help at Bulldog Day come back and volunteer throughout the year. Without them, we couldn’t achieve our goal to make certain that everyone in Western North Carolina has enough to eat."

Bulldog Day begins at 9 a.m. on the UNCA quad, where Chancellor Mullen will speak to the service teams .Then the students and leaders will board buses, vans and cars for transport to their projects. Teams will return to campus at noon for lunch together in the cafeteria.