APPLETON — From its Artsbridge arts education outreach with Appleton schoolchildren to a suicide prevention initiative, Lawrence University's links to the greater community continue to grow.

At its second annual Report-to-the-Community breakfast Tuesday, 160 faculty and civic leaders celebrated LU connections that stretch well beyond campus boundaries.

Lawrence students volunteered 12,000 hours in 2009-10 with Fox Cities service projects. Faculty and staff supported more than 150 organizations, serving on boards and committees of nearly 40 local nonprofits.

In recognition, Lawrence was named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for its fourth consecutive year.

Dave Vander Zanden, CEO of School Specialty, highlighted a key connection that emerged from the tragic deaths of two Lawrence students who suffered from depression.

Last fall, Lawrence received a three-year, $300,000 federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant to help students struggling with depression and reduce suicide risks.

But Lawrence went a step further and reached out to "partner with the whole community," Vander Zanden said.

As a result, it also received a $25,130 grant from Neenah-based J. J. Keller Foundation to coordinate free suicide prevention training by mental health experts for Fox Valley school districts and youth-serving nonprofits. The training will take place next Monday and Tuesday at the ThedaCare Behavioral Health facility in Menasha. Sixty people, including school counselors and agency representatives, will take part.

Vander Zanden said until he became involved with that effort, he did not have a close connection with Lawrence. Now he hopes others discover what he did.

"I found a great resource in this community that's a bit under the covers yet," Vander Zanden said.

Lawrence president Jill Beck said this year's theme is "Innovation through Collaboration." The public soon will see the university's newest initiative — Pop-Up Galleries — along E. College Avenue.

The collaboration with the new Trout Museum of Art will transform vacant storefronts into "galleries," giving student and community artists a public space to show their work. The initiative also will increase business for surrounding stores and restaurants, and increase the downtown's "vibrancy."

"This initiative illustrates how all of us need to participate in ensuring the survival of downtown Appleton," Beck said later. "This is a beautiful downtown and it deserves our constant attention."

Beck awarded the first annual Lawrence University "Collaboration in Action" Award to the Mielke Family Foundation, which has partnered with Lawrence in not only furthering campus education efforts but building bridges into the community. Key has been two endowed professorships and the Mielke Summer Institute in the Liberal Arts.

"We are grateful and honored to have collaborated for over 20 years," Beck said. "I hope we continue to work even more aggressively together."

Dr. John Mielke cited collaborations with Lawrence on such health and education topics as bioethics, nutrition and creativity — with more to come.

"When I drive down E. College Ave., look left and right and I see that dome and spire, I get all excited," he said. "We in Appleton should be really proud of, be thankful for and collaborate with this wonderful institution."