Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 414/832-6590
For Immediate Release					October 17, 1996
 
Lawrence Alumni Celebrate College's Sesquincentennial With National Service Day 
  
 
APPLETON, WIS. -- The Fox Cities chapter of Habitat for Humanity will benefit
from the volunteer efforts of Lawrence University alumni Saturday, October 26. 
At the same time -- literally -- bike trails in Madison, blood banks in San
Francisco and park benches in New York's Central Park also will be the
recipients of Lawrence alumni goodwill efforts.

As part of the college's year-long sesquicentennial celebration commemorating
the 150th anniversary of its founding in 1847, several hundred Lawrence alumni
in 12 cities around the country are participating in the college's National
Service Day.  Lawrence is sponsoring its volunteer activities in conjunction
with USA Today's national "Make a Difference Day." 

Locally, alumni living in the Fox Valley will spend the day working  on a pair
of area Habitat for Humanity projects -- a house on the corner of 9th St. and
London St. in Menasha and at 525 Scott St. in Oshkosh.  In addition to alumni,
more than a dozen current Lawrence students also are expected to participate in
the local volunteer effort.  

"It's a great way to get former classmates together and give something back to
our community rather than just meeting for a social function," said Ann Wendel,
Appleton, who is leading the Fox Valley project.  "It's just another way we can
try to make a difference where we live."  		

In addition to working with Habitat for Humanity that Saturday, Lawrence alumni
in Milwaukee will help senior citizens winterize their homes, in Madison's
Stricker Pond Park, biking trails will get a fresh top dressing of gravel and
park benches in New York's Central Park will receive a fresh coat of paint. 

Other volunteer activities -- from cleaning up the grounds of a residential
treatment center for troubled adolescent girls to sponsoring a blood drive to
organizing an "adopt-a-family" program for the holidays -- are scheduled that
day in Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., San
Francisco, Seattle and Colorado Springs, Colo.  

"Our national service day is an opportunity for Lawrence alumni to celebrate
the college's sesquincentennial in a very tangible manner wherever they live,"
said Jan Quinlan, director of alumni relations at Lawrence.  "It's a way to
extend the spirit of Lawrence into cities around the country and make a
positive difference in those communities."

Lawrence is one year older than the state of Wisconsin and 10 years older than
the incorporation of Appleton as a city,  It is one of approximately  200
colleges still operating from the more than 900 institutions that were  founded
in this country prior to the Civil War.