Thursday UK employees will receive the recognition they deserve, along with their counterparts. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., faculty and staff can enjoy some lunch, entertainment and activities provided by UK.

“It’s our way to give thanks to the employees who work so hard throughout the year to make UK the place that it is, a thriving educational research and health community,” David Melanson, assistant director for External Affairs and Development, said. “So it is a way for us as a university community to thank them for all that they do throughout the year.”

UK Appreciation Day will be held at the Seaton Center Gymnasium and Pieratt Field, located at 1210 University Drive. According to Melanson, UKAD first started out as UK Staff Appreciation Day.  

“It’s evolved overtime,” Melanson said. “We said that we wanted to turn this into more of UK employees of all faculty and staff, so it involved into UK Appreciation Day. It’s grown and has gotten bigger and better.”

According to UK Now, UKAD will include, along with lunch:

• a UK Department and Vendor Exhibit Fair
• Music
• Photo Booth
• Caricatures
• Voting Booths for the staff representative for the UK Board of Trustees and the UK Women’s Forum elections
• UK T-shirt Giveaway

“This is for all employees. We have employees in all 120 counties of Kentucky, so it’s not just for employees in Lexington, or on central part of campus, but all across the Commonwealth,” Melanson said. “We would love to see as many people as possible make it to UK Appreciation Day.”

For faculty and staff unable to attend UKAD, one can visit this link to obtain a shirt while supplies last.

“It’s just a great way to get out, and for a lot of us it is the first time we see somebody across campus the whole year,” Melanson said. “We might not see them very much in our work lives. It’s a nice way to reconnect and have some good conversations and share the camaraderie of being a UK employee together.”