Events Calendar

Musical theater legends come together to sing lyrics and music written by extraordinary kids. Hear Your Song is a national nonprofit organization (founded at Yale as a student org in 2014!) with the mission of empowering children and teens with serious illnesses and complex health needs to make their voices heard through collaborative songwriting. Hear Your Song offers kid-driven programming that provides power, choice — and a microphone — for youth to tell their stories on their own terms. 

Over 250 kids have written their own songs, ranging from rock bops about pasta to ballads about invisible illnesses and from patter songs about the periodic table to jazz tunes about what it’s like to have epilepsy, and they’ve heard them brought to life by Hear Your Song’s community of volunteer artists. Since Hear Your Song's inception in 2014, when it was co-founded on-campus by Dan Rubins (PC '16) and Rebecca Brudner (BR '16) in order to bring the musical community together for good, nearly 100 Yale students and alumni have volunteered as songwriting session leaders, composers, musicians, and Board members, both at the national level and at Yale's current undergraduate-led chapter. 

Now, a star-studded cast of Broadway veterans and Hear Your Song’s all-star artists—plus some of the youth songwriters themselves!—will take these incredible songs where they’ve never been before: live onstage at Feinstein’s/54 Below and LIVESTREAMING on to your screen wherever you are in the world.

Special guests include Tony®-nominee Liz Callaway (“Anastasia,” Baby), Amanda Jane Cooper (Wicked), Erin Davie (Grey Gardens, Diana), Henry Gottfried YC '18 (Waitress), and Janine LaManna (Sweet Charity, Seussical), plus over ten Yale alumni staff and volunteers of Hear Your Song hosting, singing, and playing alongside them. A number of kid songwriters will be performing, too! 

A small portion of the ticket sales will go towards supporting Hear Your Song's programming — please consider also making a donation through our website and sharing with friends who might want to attend the concert or show their support!

The Yale Club of Japan has decided to support multiple organizations and causes for this year’s Yale Day of Service. This event encourages volunteering at the Pink Ball charity gala, which the RFTC hosts annually, to raise awareness of breast cancer in Japan and raise funds for its programs. 

Now that in-person events are restarting in Japan, we are delighted to feature multiple organizations and causes for this year's Yale Day of Service!

The first organization we'll support is the NPO Run for the Cure foundation (RFTC Japan). RFTC Japan is a leading breast cancer awareness non-profit in Japan. One of their charity events, Pink Ball, is a gala that encourages sponsors, donors, and volunteers to support breast cancer awareness. As part of the Yale Day of Service, we would like to recruit about 5 to 10 volunteers for the event. This year, the gala will take place on Friday, May 13th, at the Conrad Tokyo. Additional information is below:

"All proceeds will go towards the Foundation's outreach programs, including breast cancer educational seminar "Hana-me," the publication of PiNK — our quarterly bilingual magazine for women's health — and "Pink Beauty Party," our community event for breast cancer patients and survivors. All of our programs are developed and carried out free-of-charge to improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients and survivors, as well as to raise greater awareness of the disease in Japan — both in the Japanese speaking and international communities." 

Please check the event page for more details, including COVID-19 safety guidelines and requirements and volunteer slots. Once you have registered, email Marina Yoshumura with your Yale affiliation to let her know you're participating.

Thanks, and Boola Boola! 

Contact: Marina Yoshimura '10 World Fellow

Community Servings’ mission is to actively engage the community to provide scratch-made medically tailored meals to individuals and their families experiencing critical or chronic illness and nutrition insecurity. CS relies on volunteer support to help prep, package, and deliver 17,000 meals each week.

Join us to support this important work by helping to prepare and package meals for CS clients. We currently have 20 volunteer spots reserved for this time slot which we will fill on a first come first serve basis.

Anyone ages 13+ can participate so families with older children are welcome and encouraged to join us (I'll be bringing my 13yo).

Please note that you must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and show proof of vaccination in order to volunteer and must follow all Covid-19 and food prep-related health and safety protocols required by CS. Specifics about information you need to provided to CS will be emailed to volunteers closer to the event. We will be trained for our tasks at the beginning of our shift. 

Who's Coming?

Contact: Elisabeth Nevins

The Oregon Humane Society's Doggie Dash Walk/Run is their biggest fundraiser of the year. OHS is the largest and oldest humane society in the Northwest. In 2020, OHS found homes for more than 7,000 pets in the midst of a pandemic, marked 100,000 Spay & Save surgeries and 10 years leading the Spay & Save Program, donated 23,000 N95 masks to frontline workers, hosted free food banks for essential workers & other communities in need, worked with the ASPCA to assist shelters impacted by Hurricane Laura, deployed teams to wildfire sites to help with emergency animal boarding, transported and found homes for more than 50 pets affected by the California wildfires, partnered with 12 shelters to on the historic pet rescue flight of 600 pets from Hawaii, and assisted in the rescue of 250 guinea pigs from an overwhelmed owner in Springfield. 

Please join the wonderful group of volunteers who make this event happen. Do not bring your dog to this event as you will need both hands free to help take care of the participants. 

Public transportation is a good option for this event. If driving, there are several SmartPark garages that serve this area, and street parking is often available. The garage nearest the Doggie Dash at Waterfront Park is on SE 3rd and Alder – 620 SW 3rd Ave.

This year there are two options for YDoS volunteers. Please note minimum ages for activities.

COURSE MONITORS:
7:30am – 1:00pm
Need to be assertive; only adults or adult/kid combos. Cheer on all participants and point them in the right direction.  Some positions will be stationed at water stations to hand out water to people and dogs.  Volunteers for this job must be able to stand for long periods, problem solve and follow instructions.

REGISTRATION TENT:
6:30am - 12 noon
Helping guide people in line, handing out registration forms, processing registrations, collecting donations, and handing out t-shirts. Must have good customer service skills, enjoy a fast-paced environment and be detail oriented.  Must be able to sit or stand for long periods.  Must be 18 or over for this position.

Volunteers will be prompted to select a shift upon registering.

Who’s Coming?

Contact: Genevieve Fu '05 MArch

Organized in collaboration with Yale Alumni Service Corps (YASC), join Paulo Barreiro '12 MEM, founder of Cachoeira, a local socio-environmental company, for a Yale Day of Service, virtual community vegetable garden. This session is part of an environmental and arts education program for children living in marginal neighborhoods of Serra Grande in Southern Bahia.

Come learn more about the project, find out ways to get involved, and interact with the local children who will be recycling and planting, and drawing their activities. You are also welcome to share your own community garden story or other experience.

Contact: Joao Aleixo

Yale alumni families and friends of the Association of Asian American Yale Alumni (AAAYA.org) have volunteered at this school since 2007. This year AAAYA is pleased to partner with YaleWomenNYC for the annual Yale Day of Service. Activities include clearing and planting the school gardens, restoring and painting school murals and assisting Principal Alice Hom with diverse school tasks. The event is family friendly and adults/children of all ages are invited to join.

In addition to the YDOS - we also recruit bi-lingual alumni (Cantonese, Mandarin & other Chinese dialects) who can volunteer to interpret @ parent/teacher conferences. This school - named after Yung Wing (Yale Class of 1854)  -  has one of the largest immigrant school populations in the nation. The school's renowned "Theater Club" has performed at the AAAYA Lunar Banquet (where we raise $$ to support 2 summer fellowships for Yale College students, assigned to local NYC non-profit organizations serving the AAPI community).  See this recent documentary about the school & the theater club.

Who's Coming?

Contact: Rocky Chin '71 M.Arch; Emily Shuey '07

Organized in collaboration with Yale Alumni Service Corps (YASC), join Paulo Barreiro '12 MEM, founder of Cachoeira, a local socio-environmental company, for a Yale Day of Service, virtual community vegetable garden. This session is part of an environmental and arts education program for children living in marginal neighborhoods of Serra Grande in Southern Bahia.

Come learn more about the project, find out ways to get involved, and interact with the local children who will be recycling and planting, and drawing their activities. You are also welcome to share your own community garden story or other experience.

Contact: Joao Aleixo

Join Yale alumni and Yale Blue-Green Chicago in the greater Chicago area for ECO day remove invasive garlic mustard plants from areas in the Lake County Forest Preserves' Oriole Grove.  

Alumni and their families are all welcome. Recommended age is 10+

• Long sleeves, pants, work gloves, and closed toed shoes are required
• Hat, sunglasses and water bottle are recommended
• Event will happen rain or shine - dress accordingly
• You can park at 201-299 MacLaren Ln. Look for YALE DAY OF SERVICE sign

Who's Coming?

Contact: Martha Arroyo '91

Mott Haven Fridge Network rescues excess, unsold produce from the biggest produce market in the United States and their growing volunteer task force delivers this bounty to over 25 communities in need, ensuring that fresh and healthy produce makes its way to neighbors in need that other food assistance programs don't reach.  

Join fellow Yalies and their families to sort, pack, and deliver fresh produce to New Yorkers in need!  We'll start the day by unloading a truck filled with excess, unsold produce rescued from the biggest produce market in the US!  Then, we'll sort our beautiful bounty and prepare it for delivery!  

Vehicle required!  
Once the produce is unloaded and sorted for delivery, we'll depart in our personal vehicles to pre-arranged delivery destinations, ensuring that fresh and healthy produce makes its way to communities in need.  We will meet in the back of a shopping center parking lot (right behind Burlington Coat Factory) so there is ample parking!  

Preparation needs: Dress for the weather; the entire event is outdoors!  

Space/capacity limits:  25 families 

Contact: Ji Wun Kim '98 / Dan Zauderer (Mott Haven)