N.Y. Alumni Run Public Service Group

Harvard alumni have long said they're proud of their alma mater's enthusiasm for public service, and now a group of them are trying to bring that spirit to New York City.

Organizers of the Harvard-Radcliffe Alumni Volunteer Project, just into its second year of operation, said they are working to educate New Yorkers about opportunities for public service, and running their own programs in the metropolitan area.

"Our motivation is to continue the Harvard tradition of encouraging, supporting and facilitating public service," said Ruth E. Gelfard '87, who founded the group in June, 1988.

Gelfard said she wanted New York alumni to use the education they received at Harvard and "give some-thing back" to society. And while Harvard has long had organizations to inform students about public service, she said, New York has few existing institutions to encourage community work.

"Finding out about public service opportunities in New York is difficult," Gelfard said. "At Harvard the information was always available."

And Gelfard said the program is especially important for Harvard alumni "because [they] can see the other side of New York. Our purpose is making alumni aware."

As its main project, the organization is currently publishing and distributing "The Unofficial Guide to Volunteering in New York," which lists and describes more than 40 volunteer programs throughout the city.

According to Betsy Kramer '87, a member of the service project, some of the group's other endeavors have included preparing and delivering meals to the homeless and rebuilding low-income housing.

Among the upcoming projects is "Adopt a Public School," Kramer said, in which alumni volunteer to tutor students from local public schools.

The New York group still has no official connection with Harvard. Gelfard said, however, that she is working on establishing a formal realtionship with the New York Harvard Club.

She also said she has asked President Derek C. Bok and Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities Robert M. Coles '50 to sit on the project's advisory board.

"They'll lend legitimacy and advice," she said.

Gelfard said her organization contacts new members through the Harvard Alumni Association, but that it does not have a formal affiliation with that group, either.

Despite the lack of formal Harvard affiliation, Gelfard said her organization has been an inspiration for similar projects run by alumni in Los Angeles.