Students with helping hands and willing hearts are encouraged to participate in the annual Make a Difference Day taking place on Saturday as part of a national day of community service.
Started by USA Weekend magazine in 1992, the event takes place every fourth Saturday in October. Each year, about three million people are estimated to participate worldwide.
Philosophy sophomore Michelle Fox will be this year’s site manager for the volunteers helping out with Cal Poly’s Organic Farm.
“It’s a really good link between Cal Poly and the community,” Fox said. “I think we have to realize that as Cal Poly students, we have to have a part in the community so they see us out there trying to make a difference. I think they’re going to appreciate us a lot more.”
Cal Poly will send out about 500 students to volunteer, many of them from the greek community as well as from groups such the National Honors Society and the Society of Women Engineers, said Kelsey Currier, a recreation graduate student and the community outreach specialist and coordinator for the Alternative Breaks Program.
She said students can choose the organization they want to work with on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Those choices range from non-profits from San Luis Obispo to as far as Cambria. A few of this year’s 32 organizations needing volunteers will be Food Bank, Transitions Mental Health Center, 211 San Luis Obispo Hotline, Cal Poly’s Cat Program, San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, United Way, the AIDS Support Network, the San Luis Obispo Historical Society, the city of Pismo Beach and the Sierra Club.
“Non-profits usually have two to three staff members,” Currier said. “Everyone wears about 10 hats and so for one day to have 10, 20, 30 people at their disposal is just great.”
Tasks for volunteers will vary depending on the organization but could include anything from painting, weeding and cleaning up trails to fundraising through car washes to helping United Cerebral Palsy with their Halloween party or organizing costumes for San Luis Obispo’s Little Theatre.
Currier added that certain majors can be particularly helpful in some activities such as the child development majors who signed up to help at the United Cerebral Palsy party last year.
Students last year also rallied together to create a last minute needed items drive for victims of the Southern California wildfires.
For the first time this year, Currier said she submitted every single one of Cal Poly’s volunteer contributions to the national Make a Difference Day Web site.
“If your project is in the top 10 that (the magazine) picks as the most influential then you get to donate $10,000 to your charity of choice,” she said.
Art and design senior Melody Yazdi works in the student community services branch of the community center. This will be her second year volunteering with Make a Difference Day.
“Volunteering is a really nice escape from all the schoolwork and I think that just the little thing we do for one community site can really make a difference for them,” Yazdi said. “If we have 30 people come out and (help), that cuts off a month’s work that they would do that we just do in eight hours for them.”
Volunteers can contact Kelsey Currier at 756-2176 if they want to sign up ahead of time or they can go to the Chumash Auditorium 9 a.m. Saturday. Free breakfast and lunch will be provided.