FUSION Brings University Community Together to Serve

UK FUSION (For Unity and Service In Our Neighborhood), the annual one-day service event, was held Aug. 25. Volunteers met at Haggin Field and then dispersed throughout Fayette County to help with numerous volunteer projects.

Since its inception in 2003, participation in FUSION has increased each year — from 461 participants in its first year to over 1300 participants in 2007 — quickly making FUSION one of the greatest traditions at UK, as well as one of the largest volunteer events in the state of Kentucky.

Thanks to the generous sponsorships of TIAA-CREF and other organizations, FUSION is able to give all UK students, faculty, and staff an opportunity to start off their school year in a helpful way by serving for three hours at a local non-profit agency or area neighborhood residence. Each year FUSION volunteers positively impact the community by providing over 2800 hours of service in one day. Participants are divided into small groups of 10-20 and sent out to various project sites in the Lexington community. Participants may serve at project sites that involve physical labor, such as landscaping or painting, while other sites focus on promoting student interaction with residents, like talking with the elderly or serving a meal at a homeless shelter.

The goals of FUSION are reaffirming the university's commitment to unity and service at both the individual and institutional level, reinforcing the bond between the university and the Lexington community, and building lasting friendships among new students, upper class students, faculty, and staff.

For more information, visit www.uky.edu/VolunteerCenter/FUSION.