Cooley volunteers from the GR Campus for the Day of Caring included (l to r) Enrollment and Student Services Coordinator Dave Dee, Professor Lynn Branham, Head of Public Services Aletha Honsowitz, Deputy Campus Director Joan Rosema-David, and Assistant Dean Nelson Miller.

Deputy Campus Director Joan Rosema-David washes windows during the Grand Rapids Day of Caring.

Faculty and staff members from Cooley's GR campus donned old clothes and grabbed their paintbrushes and brooms as they participated in the United Way Campaign’s "Day of Caring" on September 8, 2005. The Day of Caring is an opportunity for community volunteers to help a local agency and see how the dollars they donate to United Way are used. Cooley volunteers helped paint walls and clean rooms in the Dwelling Place on Division Avenue, which provides transitional and permanent housing for homeless and low-income residents in Grand Rapids. Cooley employees participating in the "Day of Caring" were: Assistant Dean Nelson Miller, Professor Lynn Branham, Library Head of Public Services Aletha Honsowitz, Deputy Director Joan Rosema-David, and Coordinator of Enrollment and Student Services Dave Dee.

Assistant Dean Nelson Miller helps to paint housing for transient and low-income residents in Grand Rapids during the Day of Caring.

Taking part in the Day of Caring is fast becoming a tradition on the Grand Rapids Campus. Last year, a group of Cooley faculty and staff helped to paint the Mel Trotter Mission, Cooley’s neighbor to the south. In two short years, the GR campus already has an impressive history of helping the local community. Students, faculty, and staff have made donations to food drives for a local soup kitchen, volunteered at the “Soup’s On” fundraiser, built homes for Habitat for Humanity, donated personal care items to the Grand Rapids domestic violence shelter, and "adopted" families in need for the holidays. On September 24, Cooley will sponsor a "walk-a-thon" hosted by Degage Ministries, which provides services to transient and low-income residents of the Heartside area of Grand Rapids.

Cooley Law School was one of 36 employers that participated in Day of Caring activities throughout Grand Rapids. Cooley and Grand Valley State University were the only educational institutions to participate. The annual Day of Caring allows over 1,400 volunteers to experience first hand how their gifts of time impact the lives of nearly 290,000 individuals and families while saving agencies and the community nearly $62,000 in labor and material costs.