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As part of Duke Appreciation, Duke pays special tribute to faculty and staff celebrating career service
milestones of 10 years or more at the Night of Duke Stars, an invitation-only event. There are more
than 2,000 employees celebrating a special milestone this year, including two people who have worked
at Duke for 50 years. The following are examples from those celebrating this year of the many roles
and contributions that help make Duke the special place it is today. Additional examples
can be found online.
"You can always better yourself and your situation at Duke. There's always a door waiting to be opened."
Dorothy Dunkins
While the identity of the person behind the Duke Blue Devil mascot is carefully protected, another mascot that roams the stands ofWallaceWade Stadium is more than happy to reveal her true identity — the Duke recycling mascot is actually Dorothy Dunkins, a 10-year veteran of FacilitiesManagement. Dressed up as an aluminum can with a wide smile and bright red sneakers, Dunkins takes great pride in this part of her job as a recycler. After all, it was her idea. "I brought up the suggestion during a meeting," she said, describing how the idea just came to her. "I asked, 'Why not have a recycling mascot?' Fortunately there was a costume and, yes, it was a can. I just go around at football games and ask people to please recycle. The little kids love it, and we actually collect a lot more recycling materials." Dunkins chuckles while talking about her role as the Duke recycling mascot, but she takes every bit of her job seriously. She has generated many ideas since she started her job in 1998, and she sees it as one of many ways to excel at Duke. "We're always trying to better ourselves here," she said. "I see Duke as an opportunity. You can always better yourself and your situation at Duke. There's always a door waiting to be opened." Her positive attitude and innovative ideas have spilled over to other areas as well. In January, Dunkins helped organize the unofficial Grounds and Sanitation gospel choir with three recycling colleagues, who are also her relatives — two aunts, Mary Royster and Sarah Hall, and her son Larry Dunkins.With a few men from the sanitation department, she performed at the Annual Martin Luther King Duke Employee Breakfast. They garnered lots of praise, yet Dunkins said they did it just for fun. "The other girls and I used to sing in gospel choir years ago. And I knew a couple of guys that sing in choirs," she said. "Maybe we'll do it again. It was good to get coworkers together and bond." As Duke continually enhances its sustainability efforts, Dunkins and her team serve as an integral part of the process.They enjoy meeting people while out on their daily routes, especially students, whom she says give great feedback. Dunkins said she enjoys donning her mascot costume at football games to drum up excitement, sometimes with games of toss that encourage recycling. She gently scolds people for throwing recyclables in the trash, and eggs them on to recycle instead. "It's just amazing, we see so many people in a day's time," she said. "We are
motivating the students as they motivate us.We're trying to educate people to
recycle what they can to keep these materials out of the landfill."
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