Answering the Call to Serve

To the Dartmouth Community, 

In our 250th year, we called and you answered, and I couldn't be prouder.

Last week, we blew past our goal of 250,000 hours of service as part of The Call to Serve. To have achieved this result together is extraordinary and a testament to the strength of the Dartmouth community worldwide and to our collective desire to do good in the world. Everyone in our community contributed: students, alumni, faculty and staff, parents and friends, across all 50 states and an incredible 37 countries. 

In true Dartmouth fashion, students led the way, contributing nearly half of the total hours recorded! I'm so pleased that you've continued the longstanding Dartmouth tradition of making service part and parcel of the Dartmouth experience, and I hope that it inspires a life-long commitment to engaging with your communities in positive ways, wherever 'round the girdled earth you roam. Special thanks go to the Center for Social Impact, which maintains the critical connections to our local community that make student service possible. 

Alumni and families, too, rose to the occasion, organizing service projects around the world and in every U.S. state -- even crossing state lines to ensure that every state in the union felt the impact of our efforts. Enthusiasm was so great that we hope to organize a service project at every major alumni gathering from this point forward.

And here in the Upper Valley, Dartmouth faculty and staff answered the call with a will to make a difference in our own back yard. Gail and I were delighted to join with our colleagues in the President's Office for gardening and meal prep projects at The Haven this year, and we plan to make service as a team an annual tradition.

Thank you all for the many ways you have answered The Call to Serve -- in support of education, the environment, and the health and wellbeing of others. You have succeeded in making Dartmouth's 250th year a moment not of looking back, but of giving back, and of contributing to a brighter future ahead.

Sincerely, 

Philip J. Hanlon '77
President