Events Calendar

*This service project is closed*

The Yale Club of Hartford is a sponsor of the event.  During the regional finals, Yale Club members will judge entries, and three teams of Club members will select the Club's Samuel Morse, Eli Whitney, and David Bushnell awards.  The Yale Club awards will be presented in person on June 10, 2023, at the University of Connecticut.

Volunteers should register their employer as Yale Club of Hartford. The Connecticut Invention Convention will alert the organizer of members of Team Yale Club of Hartford.

Contact: Katherine McCormack '81 MPH

The Mercy Learning Center (MLC) mission is to provide literacy and life skills training to low income women in Bridgeport, CT. The center serves about 1,000 women per year, from 50 countries of origin, and teaches English, Math, Science, Social Studies/Civics and computing/technology to prepare students for High School Equivalency diplomas, U.S. Citizenship exams, job interviews and college careers. MLC has a holistic approach and also offers social services, counseling, food and diaper assistance and childcare. CEO Jane Ferreira, Yale YDS Class of ‘89 often says, “When you educate a woman, you educate a family” and all donations will stretch across generations.

Donation Drive: What is Needed and How to Contribute:
The MLC is in urgent need of donations and family friendly Food Pantry & toiletries for their members for at home use. Given the pandemic’s impact on their community there are multiple ways to engage and contribute as follows:

• May 12: Virtual Conversation: Optional Zoom call Friday afternoon, May 12 with Jane Ferreira, President & CEO of The Mercy Learning Center and Guest Speakers on “The Urgency of Accelerating Women’s Literacy”. See who's coming!
• Ongoing: Cash/Credit Donations: Send directly to MLC and note YDOS 23
• Ongoing: Food Pantry & Toiletries: Non-Perishable Healthy Foods and Toiletries can be sent via Amazon.com or Walmart.com for Monday to Friday delivery dates at any time to The Mercy Learning Center, 637 Park Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604-4611.
  • Please note YDOS 23 in gift receipt comments for tracking.
  • Favorites of their families would be healthy cereal, soup, canned tuna and chicken, bags of rice and dried beans, pasta and sauce, canned vegetables and fruits, peanut butter and jelly for groceries
  • Priority toiletries include toothbrushes (adult and child), toothpaste, floss, soap, shampoo, deodorant, baby wipes, tampons and sanitary napkins for toiletries.
• May 22: In Person Drop Off: For those interested, we will drop off a care package on Monday, May 22, and take photos with The MLC staff and families, as available. Exact time to be scheduled in mid April 2023.

Site Contacts: Lee Race '93 MBA & Kylie Race

Social Sharing: If you’d like to include words of encouragement and name and Yale affiliation or a photo as part of our care package and social post for our YDOS for The Mercy Learning Center please email Lee & Kylie.

Thank you to past participants, it’s been an incredibly meaningful effort to support The Mercy Learning Center mission, staff and community.

Taimaka is a non-profit focused on tackling childhood malnutrition, supported by a recent Yale alum. Taimaka runs an incubation lab in northeastern Nigeria where we offer clinical treatment to roughly 5,000 children with acute malnutrition and incubate a portfolio of research projects to improve the efficacy and cost of treatment for the 45.4 million children who need it. In short, we save lives, then learn how to do it better.

Taimaka is a relatively young organization and as we scale, we’d love the support of Yale alumni on areas we have less expertise in, even if it’s just 1-2 hours! If you're interested in supporting us, you can sign up for any number of hours from May 13th - May 27th and we'll coordinate a time to work together! 

Here are some examples of tasks we'd love help with based on your expertise: 

Legal Advice 
(e.g., work with our CEO to build better employment policies) 

Tax Support
(e.g., work with our CEO ensure that we’re compliant with our non-profit filing requirements this year!)

Finance
(e.g., work with our CEO to think about how to better project our financial needs/what we should be thinking about as we scale)

Consulting
(e.g., work with our fundraising director to red-team our strategy for scale and help brainstorm creative ideas for how we can pitch ourselves!)

Communications/Graphic Design
(e.g., work with our fundraising director to revamp some of our materials or think about how we pitch ourselves)

Think Tanks/Journalists/Writers
(e.g., help us proof some of our external materials to ensure that they read cleanly and effectively to non-Taimaka audiences)

Government/Policy/Lobbying
(e.g., work with our gov’t relations lead to brainstorm how to better advocate for malnutrition as a priority at USAID and other government agencies)

Fundraising/Marketing
(e.g., work with our fundraising director to brainstorm how to put together a better high net-worth donor strategy)

Public Health/Research
(e.g., work with our research director to help us review some literature for our research portfolio)

Business generally
(e.g., mentor our executive leadership team in thinking about how to build a stronger organization!)

Contact: Olivia Shoemaker '21

Are you interested in learning more about an environmental and educational program in Brazil? Join us for a virtual community garden for children in Serra Grande, Bahia on May 18!

Organized in collaboration with Yale Alumni Service Corps (YASC), join Paulo Barreiro '12 MESc, grassroots activist and founder of Cachoeira, a local socio-environmental company, for a second virtual Yale Day of Service at the community vegetable garden and educational program Little Garden of All Our Dreams. The volunteer program began in 2021 to foster an Active Empathy for Life, through vegetable gardening, play and music. We are the recipient of the First Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies' grant for Community Projects in Sustainability and Climate Change that gives us funding to cover costs and strengthen community governance for 12 months.

Learn more about the evolution of the project, interact with the volunteer activists, and find out ways to get involved with the community vegetable and the community library, our key partner! In the first half of this Yale Day of Service project we will be learning about soil improvement and planting healthy foods in a rural-urban setting. In the second half the children will be drawing, and we will have a chance to speak with you where you can share your own backyard or community garden story! If you have any questions, please reach out to João. 

Join Yale Day of Service co-chair Rob Greenly '83 MBA to create "Birthdays in a Box" by wrapping large boxes and filling them with items needed to celebrate a child’s birthday in a homeless shelter.

Birthday Wishes’ mission is to provide birthday parties to children experiencing homelessness. Birthday Wishes believes that all children, regardless of their living situation, should celebrate their birthdays joyfully, surrounded by family, friends, and others who care.  You can help make this happen for those children!

We will gather virtually via Zoom on Sunday May 21st at 1:00pm to watch a video about Birthday Wishes, get instructions on how to build a Birthday in a Box, and then build our boxes together from the comfort of our own home. 

**This project involves some upfront shopping on your part.** 

Review the instructions and shopping list before May 21.

After your box is built you can drop it off at Rob Greenly's house in Newton, MA anytime before 12noon on Tues, May 23rd (address given on Sunday, May 21st). Or you can join other Yalies on Tuesday, May 23rd at 1:30pm as we drop off our boxes together at Birthday Wishes HQ at 24 Superior Dr, Suite B1, Natick, MA 01760.

Details for the Tuesday, May 23 delivery event

Contact: Rob Greenly '83 MBA

On average every day 11 Canadians are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), an unpredictable illness that affects vision, balance, memory, and mobility.

Every person participating in and/or fundraising for the MS Walk makes a lasting positive impact. To participate in this walk you are not under any obligation to fundraise or make a donation; awareness and education are a large part of the MS mission.

Volunteers should join team Mighty Strong through the registration link. Enter YDOS into the field for the field for 'Apt/Suite/Other' on the registration form, so we know who you are. 

Contact: Izabela Klosowski

The Yale Club of Hartford invites you to join over 350 engineers, scientists, academics, entrepreneurs, and legal professionals who will judge student inventions and inspire young minds to pursue science and engineering.  We have a unique opportunity to sponsor and judge the regional virtual event of hundreds of Connecticut student inventors who have prepared to demonstrate their achievement in creative and critical thinking skills and their active role as inventors. 

The Yale Club of Hartford will select three inventors, representing an elementary, a middle, and a high school level.  The three Yale Club awards will be presented during an in-person finals event on Saturday, June 8th at Gampel Pavilion on the campus of University of Connecticut.

Please consider volunteering some time to support our young inventors and/or sharing this invitation with any friends or colleagues who may want to judge!

Upcoming Events:

• Connecticut State Semi-Finals:  April 5th-19th, Asynchronous Virtual Judging - Judge from Anywhere!
• Connecticut State Finals:  Saturday, June 8th 2024, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

These registration forms are managed by the Connecticut Invention Convention team.  If you decide to register as a judge, please note “Yale Club of Hartford” in the field for Employer.  

Once you have registered, please e-mail Club of Hartford Vice President Katherine McCormack so we can include you on Team Yale Club of Hartford and keep you connected with other Club members who will be also be serving as judges, and also enter you onto the list for Yale Day of Service!

Thank you for supporting student innovation!

Contact: Katherine McCormack '81 MPH