Before They Hit the Books, UCLA Students to Go out and Serve

About 6,500 new UCLA students are hitting the streets of Los Angeles today to do good deeds.

Incoming freshman and transfer students, along with staffers, parents and alumni, are sorting food donations, helping out veterans and senior citizens, distributing donated school and dental supplies, maintaining hiking trails and painting and patching up public buildings and parks, among other things.

Volunteer Day, organized by the school’s Volunteer Center, is part of Chancellor Gene Block’s agenda for making UCLA known for its involvement in its surrounding community and greater Los Angeles. Already, more than half of the university’s undergraduates participate in some form of community service, a spokesperson said.

--City News Service

PHOTO Patch file photo.