August 6, 2009
UCLA has received a $250,000 grant from the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a leading charitable organization of the entertainment industry, to support UCLA’s inaugural Volunteer Day on Sept. 22.
On that day, UCLA will dispatch thousands of new freshman and transfer students, as well as staff, faculty and alumni, into Los Angeles communities to volunteer for projects ranging from beach restoration to school beautification. UCLA Volunteer Day will be the largest community participation project in the university’s history, and is believed to be the largest single-day volunteer event ever held by an educational institution.
Volunteer Day will be the kick-off event for the UCLA Volunteer Center, an online resource for community involvement, which will launch on Sept. 21. The Volunteer Center will fulfill a long-standing commitment by Chancellor Gene Block to enhance UCLA’s participation in public service and position the university as a national leader in volunteerism.
About 5,000 new Bruin students — along with an estimated 1,000 staff, faculty, alumni and upper-division students helping to coordinate the huge enterprise — will volunteer at eight locations throughout the city on Volunteer Day. Sites include Griffith Park, Point Dume State Beach, the Veterans Administration Hospital in West L.A. and five Los Angeles Unified School District schools.
Assistant Chancellor Antoinette Mongelli, executive director of the Volunteer Center, said, “Volunteer Day is part of UCLA’s vision to create a ‘community of heroes,’ a corps of thousands of enlightened volunteers from the extended UCLA family and the greater community who are involved in a lifelong commitment to civic engagement.”
The massive unleashing of student volunteers across the city will help demonstrate to students the powerful, positive impact they can have on their community, according to David Bloome, campaign director of Volunteer Day.
On Sept. 21, Chancellor Block will address all new students in Pauley Pavilion during True Bruin Welcome 2009. He will ask them to join in Volunteer Day to build upon the strong tradition of service that already exists at UCLA and make engagement in their communities an integral part of their UCLA careers, and beyond. He will also be unveiling “service” as the fifth value of being a True Bruin – in addition to integrity, excellence, accountability and respect.
Lisa Paulsen, EIF’s president and chief executive officer, said, “EIF is proud to help UCLA launch its inaugural Volunteer Day and hopes other campuses across the country will follow its lead.”
This fall, EIF, which has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to support charitable initiatives addressing critical health, education and social issues, will kick off a multi-year campaign to inspire volunteerism, including major TV network participation in a weeklong television campaign focusing on the power of service.
Also partnering with UCLA on Volunteer Day and in the UCLA Volunteer Center is L.A. Works, a volunteer action center that creates and implements hands-on community service projects throughout the greater Los Angeles area.
