The Yale Club of Hartford invites you to
join us for the 5th Annual Yale Day of Service

Yale alumni from Yale College and the Graduate & Professional Schools, their families and friends working hand-in-glove with Elizabeth Park Conservancy

Saturday, May 11, 2013
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon

Join alumni from Yale College and the Graduate & Professional Schools, family and friends and the Elizabeth Park Conservancy (formerly the Friends of Elizabeth Park) as we come together in a Day of Service to help get Elizabeth Park Rose Garden spruced up for the season!  We will mulch, weed, and prune – and have a great time working together and getting to know one another!  Tools will be provided.  Bring your own work gloves, hats, sunglasses and sun screen.

To register for Yale Day of Service at Elizabeth Park Rose Garden, go to http://yaledayofservice.org/node/1139.  Questions?  Contact Susan Lennon, ’85 MPPM/MBA at susan.lennon@womenscolleges.org.  

Why does Yale Day of Service in Elizabeth Park matter?  The mission of the non-profit Elizabeth Park Conservancy is to maintain, preserve, restore and promote Elizabeth Park.  The Conservancy depends on volunteers like us to help steward the legacy of Elizabeth Park.  Charles Pond (as in The Pond House Cafe), who died in 1894, bequeathed his land to the City of Hartford in memory of his wife, Elizabeth (as in Elizabeth Park).  He envisioned a public botanical park.  Elizabeth Park opened to the public in 1897.  The Rose Garden – the first municipal rose garden in the United States – opened in 1904. One hundred sixteen years later, here’s Elizabeth Park by the numbers:  500,000 visitors annually.  201 acres straddling the City of Hartford and the Town of West Hartford.  Twelve gardens, including the Rose Garden with 2 ½ acres, 450 rose beds, and 15,000 rose bushes.  Four greenhouses.  Ten summer concerts.  The happy faces?  Countless.

Here’s Day of Service by the numbers:  Last year, over 3,500 Yale alums, friends, and families participated in more than 245 hands-on volunteer service projects in 38 states, as well as in Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and 20 countries around the world.  Alumni ranged from the Class of 1945 to recently admitted Yale students and their families. Thirty-three percent of the participants were from the Graduate & Professional Schools.  Equally important, for 25% of the Yale alums who participated, the Day of Service was their first re-engagement with Yale since graduation.  And 95% of those who participated in the Yale Day of Service said that they would do it again! How is your community different because Yale alumni live there?

We look forward to seeing you!  For more information about the Yale Club of Hartford, go to http://alumninet.yale.edu/clubs/hartford/The_Yale_Club_of_Hartford/Welcome.html