Duke Stars
Dorothy Dunkins -- Recycler, Facilities Management, Duke University
"You can always better yourself and your situation at Duke. There's always a door waiting to be opened."
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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