From cleaning up beaches to building homes, UConn alumni groups across the country will be volunteering in their communities during the month of April for a new community service initiative called UConn Cares.

“I love the idea. It shows how the University is committed to giving back to the community,” said Martin I. Horn ’73 (CLAS), ’75 MA, who will be making dog tug toys, cat wands, and other much-needed pet toys at a Chicago animal shelter with his alumni group.

Already several groups, from San Francisco to Boston, have signed up for the UConn Cares community service initiative. The project is flexible. Groups can choose their own service project – one that has personal meaning to them or their city – and do it any day during the month of April.

“Our alumni chapters have really embraced this. It’s so exciting,” said Montique Cotton Kelly, associate vice president for Alumni Relations. “UConn alums will be helping across America, doing everything from highway clean-ups to food drives to mentoring.”

Colorado and San Francisco groups, for example, are helping Habitat for Humanity, while a Groton, Conn. chapter is cleaning up the beach at UConn’s Avery Point campus. The UConn Foundation’s alumni staff is pitching in too. They’ll be cleaning up and painting Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford, Conn.

Volunteers will get a UConn t-shirt and groups are encouraged to post photos of their projects at #uconncares. Find a project near you.

For more information, contact Matt Fraulino ’05 at mfraulino@foundation.uconn.edu or 860-486-2201.