Durham community leaders and Duke University celebrated a record year of donations to the annual Duke-Durham Campaign at a campaign event June 5 at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life.

Dave Hughey, outgoing campaign chair and president of the Herald-Sun of Durham, announced that $207,000 was raised for projects to strengthen several Durham neighborhoods. The total included $128,000 in financial contributions, exceeding the campaign's $100,000 goal. An additional $75,000 came through gifts in kind and materials and labor for construction projects donated by Duke contractors.

"This Duke-Durham Campaign is a way to help Durham, a chance to help our neighbors in need in Durham," Hughey said.

The annual effort helps fund the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, in which Duke works with neighborhood leaders to improve the quality of life in 12 Durham neighborhoods closest to campus and to boost student achievement in seven schools that serve those neighborhoods. Some of the initiatives involve affordable housing partnerships, after-school programming for youths and tutoring.

Speaking to a crowd of about 200 local business, nonprofit and church leaders, Duke employees and Duke student community volunteers, President Nannerl O. Keohane reaffirmed the importance of helping the community.

"We wanted to say one of our university's major priorities is to be a good neighbor," Keohane said. "It's very much a symbiosis this campaign supports.

"It has been a banner year, which has been all the more remarkable, because it has been in a year of economic downturn," she added.

Hughey credited the year's success with the expansion of the campaign's base of donors. Campaign volunteers raised contributes from 233 donors this year, a 36 percent increase from last year's total of 171. This resulted in an increase of 28 percent in contributions for the campaign.

Hughey also praised campaign director Sam Miglarese, assistant director of the Duke Office of Community Affairs, for exceptional organizational skills and morale-building. "This was not a chore, it was a pleasure," said Hughey, who was presented with a Duke rocking chair as a thank-you for his leadership.