Members of the Penn State Athletics staff and Nittany and Lady Lion student-athletes will be among the participants in United Way's 10th Annual "Day of Caring" activities, which are set for today.

Activities begin today at 8 a.m. with the "Day of Caring" pancake breakfast under the North stands of Beaver Stadium.

The breakfast is sponsored by Penn State.

The primary project for Penn State Athletics is the "Rails to Trails" project, which will run all day at Sunset Park in State College.

Athletic department staff, coaches and student-athletes will be cutting brush and creating a new trail at the park from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Among the other projects Penn State teams are participating in Thursday include the following;

The Lady Lion basketball team will be painting a Strawberry Fields home at 135 W. Clearview Avenue in State College from 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

The Nittany Lion women's gymnastics team will be painting dugouts at the Stonebridge Little League fields in State College starting at 2:45 p.m.

Members of the Penn State men's lacrosse squad will be working on several projects at the Penn State Recycling Center starting from 3:00-6:00 p.m.

The women's lacrosse team will be involved in a Downtown Improvement District clean-up project on East Calder Way in State College from 3:00-5:00 p.m.

The United Way supports approximately 35 agencies in the Centre Region.

The United Way touched the lives of approximately 40,000 (one in three) Centre County residents in 2002.