• Check out the Carolina Outreach video!
• Follow Carolina Outreach on Facebook
  
• Outreach Report Form for Student-Athletes

UNC places a high degree of emphasis on community service by its student-athletes. A wide range of activities serves to aid many sectors of the community, lending helping hands and enthusiasm while presenting Carolina student-athletes as outstanding role models.

At the same time, the outreach activities benefit student-athletes, who practice leadership and servitude, bond with teammates and build contacts and experience that may help them as they pursue internships and jobs.

Carolina Outreach is the driving force behind the community service effort of UNC student-athletes. One or two members of each team meet monthly to brainstorm and plan for activities, some of which are generated by the student-athlete ideas and interests and others which come about as the result of requests from local entities. Carolina Athletics works closely with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Durham school systems and UNC Hospitals, as well as organizations such as Ronald McDonald House, Durham Social Services, Special Olympics and Adopt-A-Highway.

Some highlights:

• Launched and maintained by UNC student-athletes, Carolina Dreams brings children treated at North Carolina Children's Hospital to campus to spend an afternoon with student-athletes while attending an athletic event.
• Each December, teams "adopt" needy families through the Share Your Holidays program. Student-athletes and coaches shop for, wrap and distribute gifts and household essentials. The track and field teams invite their adopted families to the squad's annual Christmas party.
• Through visits with patients and staffing a "Kids' Cart" that distributes snacks and activities, UNC student-athletes donate hundreds of hours each year to UNC Children's Hospital.
• Field hockey senior Meghan Lyons organized the Sun Safety Project, which raises awareness of skin cancer risk factors and distributes sunscreen at UNC sporting events. At field hockey camp each summer, participants are asked to donate bottles of sunscreen, which are then donated to the local homeless shelter.
• For the past two years, Carolina tennis player Haley Hemm has organized a field day for a local elementary school as a way to encourage physical activity and teach sportsmanship.
• Tar Heel coaches and staffers are frequent speakers at All-Pro Dads breakfasts, held monthly for elementary school students and their fathers.
• Through the Adopt a Classroom program, Tar Heel student-athletes develop relationships with a particular group of elementary school students, offering encouragement, tutoring and fun through special planned activities.
• Carolina student-athletes are regular participants in Habitat for Humanity builds, with most teams participating at least once per year and some much more frequently.
• All UNC teams visit Charles House, a care facility for the elderly, and Ronald McDonald House, which provides food and lodging for families of children being treated at UNC Hospitals. At Charles House, the student-athletes provide companionship in the form of conversation and activities. At Ronald McDonald House, they cook meals, organize game nights and help with facility maintenance.

  A Sampling of Carolina Outreach Programs:

• Get Kids in Action
• Carolina Dreams
• Children's Hospital
• Adopt-a-Classroom
• Share Your Holiday
• Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive
• Habitat for Humanity
• Ronald McDonald House

For additional information, please contact Cricket Lane at (919) 843-2040 or cricket@uncaa.unc.edu