Mail Services personnel ran around the Davis campus collecting food for three weeks this month and brought in a record 2,545 pounds in the ninth annual Mail Services Holiday Food Drive. Now, everyone’s invited to run with Team Physics in another food bank benefit!

And we know of some dogs and cats that need our help, too.

Team Physics — It’s participating in the sixth annual Running of the Turkeys, set for Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27) in Woodland as a benefit for the Yolo Food Bank.

David Wittman, associate professor, is the team captain. You’ll need his name for your registration form, if you choose to join Team Physics. (Or you can run with another team or as an individual — you’ll still be helping the food bank.)

The 5-kilometer run-walk will start and end at Heritage Plaza, in front of the Woodland Opera House, Main and Second streets. Starting time is 8 a.m.; same-day registration and packet pickup start at 7.

Professor Lloyd Knox said he and his physics colleagues have two goals this year:

• To win the prize for largest registered team.
• To raise $4,600 for the food bank.

Knox, Wittman and Professor Richard Scalettar have pledged $2,300 to match other people’s donations, a dollar for a dollar.

Contributions can be made by checks made payable to “Yolo Food Bank” (with “Team Physics” in the memo line), and sent to Professor Knox in the Department of Physics.

Mail Services Holiday Food Drive — The 2013 Davis campus collection totaled 1,647 pounds, which was a new record. It only lasted a year, because this year “we crushed it here on campus,” said Jen Carmichael, a manager in Distribution Services.

How big of a crush? The Davis campus beat last year’s total by nearly 900 pounds.

Davis' 2,545 pounds go to the Yolo Food Bank, and the Sacramento campus's 763 pounds go to Sacramento Food & Family Services. Altogether, that's 3,308 pounds of food, or more than 1.5 tons.

Dogs and cats — For the 19th year, staff volunteers at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital are collecting money to help fill 130 holiday-wrapped baskets with toys, treats, food and pet care products, for homeless people’s pets.

The baskets will be distributed on Saturday, Dec. 13, to men and women at the monthly Mercer Veterinary Clinic for the Homeless, next to Loaves & Fishes, a food and shelter program in Sacramento. The nonprofit clinic is independent of UC Davis, run on a volunteer basis by students from the School of Veterinary Medicine under the supervision of faculty and others from the school.

The Holiday Pet Baskets program also is raising funds for the fourth year to provide sweaters and coats to help these pets survive the winter weather.

“The Holiday Pet Baskets are a much appreciated gift to these very special pets that deserve a happy holiday, too,” said Eileen Samitz, who coordinates the holiday basket program. “However, we also recognize the essential need for warm sweaters and coats, particularly for the smaller or older pets, which have a far harder time enduring the cold winter temperatures, especially at night.”

Donations may be made online or by check:

• Online — Choose the “Mercer Clinic Holiday Pet Baskets” option.
• Check — Make it payable to “UC Regents-Mercer Holiday Pet Baskets” and mail to the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Office of the Dean, P.O. Box 1167, Davis 95617-1167, to the attention of “Mercer Holiday Pet Baskets.”

More information is available on the Mercer clinic website (including a photo gallery). Or, contact Samitz by phone in the evenings or on weekends, (530) 756-5165; or email.

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