News Release

Local angles: Burke, Catawba, Durham, Orange and Robeson counties

UNC student organizations receive Seagraves
Service Grants for diverse public service projects

CHAPEL HILL -- Nine University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student organizations have received grants to fund projects as diverse as providing information to families facing foreclosure and creating a community garden at a local homeless shelter.

UNC’s Carolina Center for Public Service recently presented the Seagraves Service Grants to support public service projects addressing identifiable needs statewide. The grants program is funded through the support of a UNC alumnus in honor of his grandmother, Mildred Yeager Seagraves.

This is the second year of the Seagraves Grants, and the donor’s $15,000 gift will continue to support the grants program for the next three years.

"This was the greatest opportunity, and we really appreciated the money that we were given," said 2004 Seagraves Grant recipient Jessica Milliken of Las Guapitas, a student organization that mentors Hispanic middle school girls.

"The girls in the program have learned so much as a result of this program, and it’s because of the grant that we were able to do it."

The Carolina Center for Public Service received proposals from officially recognized UNC student organizations and chose nine to receive funding. Grantees receive up to $300 to fund their proposed service projects during the 2005-2006 academic year.

This year’s recipients include the following:

• The American Medical Association is partnering with Orange County Schools to provide nutrition information and a physical activity program for fourth-graders and high school students through the IMPACT (Improving Meals and Physical Activity in Children and Teens) Program. Seagraves funds will be used for curriculum materials and healthy snacks.
  
• Best Buddies is an international nonprofit organization that strives to enrich the lives of people with mental disabilities. The UNC chapter pairs college students with mentally disabled adults in the community, providing friendships and learning experiences for both. The grant will be used to support a trip to a farm in eastern North Carolina for 40 students and their best buddies.
  
• Big Buddies will create a reader’s club to encourage elementary school students to read with their UNC student mentor. Seagraves funding will purchase subscriptions to National Geographic for Kids and age-appropriate books to be given as prizes at an end-of-the-year party for children who read with their big buddy.
  
• Heels on Housing, in collaboration with the Center for Responsible Lending, will use Seagraves funding to increase awareness of the issues involved in foreclosure by developing information packets and an intake survey for families facing foreclosure in Durham and Orange counties.
  
• The Hmong Students Association of Carolina will take 150 high school students from Burke and Catawba counties (where significant Hmong populations live) to visit UNC and N.C. State University for a day. The trip will allow students to tour the campuses and experience the university environment. Seagraves funds will be used for transportation and information packets.
  
• Nourish International will work with residents at Project Homestart to create and maintain a community garden to address malnutrition and hunger issues locally. Project Homestart is a homeless shelter for women and children in Chapel Hill. The Seagraves grant will cover all expenses including gardening tools, seeds and fertilizer.
  
• Spanish Speakers Assisting Latinos Student Association will improve interpretation services at the health clinic provided by UNC’s student-run Student Health Action Coalition. SALSA will use Seagraves funding to pay native Spanish speakers to act as clinic patients through simulated patient interviews so volunteer interpreters can practice interpreting medical/health issues.
  
• Students for Organ Donation will educate high school students at Chapel Hill High School about organ donation through information sessions held in health classes. Interested high school students will then be trained to register other organ donors and create a "Students for Organ Donation" program. Seagraves funds will be used to purchase refreshments for monthly meetings and incentives for informational demonstrations.
  
• Unite for Sight will use its Seagraves grant to fund a trip to Lumberton for 15 volunteers to provide vision education and vision screenings to the underserved American Indian population in Robeson County. Unite for Sight members also will help pair people with insurance programs in order to encourage continued healthy eye and vision care.

For more information on public service opportunities at UNC, visit http://www.unc.edu/cps.

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Carolina Center for Public Service contact: Brooke Wilson, (919) 843-7568

News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu