The 7th Annual Case for Community Day is almost here. More than 500 students, faculty, staff and alumni will assist campus neighbors and organizations in a community-wide day of service on Friday, September 25.

If this is your first time volunteering as part of Case for Community Day—or you need a refresher on what to do and where to go—the following is a scheduled breakdown of the day's planned activities, as well as a reminder about the Campus Social being held immediately after the day of service.

If you didn't have an opportunity to sign up for a project, you can still give back. Following the logistical schedule is information about the numerous on-campus donation drives, including updated details about the E-Cycling initiative.

A 560-volunteer corps from Case Western Reserve University will hit the streets of Cleveland for the university's traditional day of service, Case for Community Day, Friday, September 25. This year, the campus broke a record in filling all the volunteer slots at 60 project locations in less than a week.

Among the 60 project sites is a campus neighbor—the Abington Arms Apartments, 11501 Mayfield Road. Residents will open their doors for an opportunity to receive help with some fall cleaning.

The 152-suite, 13-story apartment complex has benefited from volunteer efforts since the service day's inception in 2002.

Susan Persing, Abington Arms' property manager, says the number of resident requests for volunteer help continues to grow each year. This year 40 residents have requested help from 20 volunteers who have signed up to work on this project. Depending upon the amount of work required, Persing says, about 75 percent of the resident requests should be filled by the volunteers who will be at the apartment complex for the afternoon.

"When the volunteers finish, our residents have a real feel-good feeling about their newly cleaned apartments," says Persing.

Put a price tag on the benefits of volunteering, and it might read contented, happy, and $20 and more an hour.

Faculty, staff and students can share in those benefits when they give back to the Cleveland community during the all-campus service day called Case for Community Day on Friday, September 25.

Angela Schluchter, the student service coordinator in the university's Center for Civic Engagement & Learning (CCEL), spent three years in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica before coming to the university. She lived and worked in a small village of 500 people. She taught English and computer classes and helped parents and the local school board establish community computer center.

She has seen the "empowering" experience that volunteering can have in supporting people who are trying to make a positive difference.

In his first university appearance in Ohio, the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book, Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, will speak about his philanthropic work: bringing peace to a region by building schools and educating children in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He is the invited speaker for Case Western Reserve University's Fall Convocation at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, August 26, in Severance Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Mortenson, a mountain climber, will talk about the harrowing experience of his failed attempt to summit K2, the world's second highest mountain, and losing his way in the wilderness of this mountainous region in 1993.