Working alongside recovering drug addicts and her fellow
students, Sarah Kolterman wielded a rake and a pair of
hedgetrimmers as she joined in at a relandscaping effort at a drug
recovery center.
“You can’t get the best of me, rosebush!”
yelled Kolterman, a fourth-year psychology student, as she
attempted to remove some feisty foliage, which would soon be
replaced with a stepping-stone path.
Kolterman was one of more than 800 UCLA students who spread out
across Los Angeles on Saturday to collectively volunteer thousands
of hours of service as part of the third annual Community Service
Day.
Students were bused to sites in the Los Angeles area where they
served in animal shelters, picked up litter at Venice Beach,
assisted in beautification efforts at drug rehabilitation centers
and elementary schools, and worked with the Special Olympics at
UCLA.
The event, carried out by the Community Service Commission, has
grown exponentially since its creation two years ago, when a group
of about 20 students participated in the first Community Service
Day.
Anna Andersen, a first-year undeclared student, said the event
helped new students like herself, who are still trying to figure
out what activities to get involved in.
When students returned to campus from their day of volunteering,
it was to a community service fair in De Neve Plaza, where they
could learn about a variety of campus and local community
organizations.
Community Service Day allowed students who might not otherwise
have the time to get involved in campus organizations to serve,
because such groups often require a weekly commitment of several
hours and continuing participation over several quarters, Andersen
said.
“It’s not a big commitment ““ it’s just
one day,” Andersen said.
Nisha Bansal, a second-year biology student who works with Bruin
Partners, a tutoring and mentoring program with students at Marina
del Rey Middle School, said Community Service Day allowed students
already involved in service to become exposed to different types of
projects.
“We do the same thing every week (with Bruin Partners), so
I don’t get a chance to explore other community service
projects,” she said.
One of the sites where students put in a day of work was at the
Clare Foundation in Santa Monica.
The foundation, started by Venice and Santa Monica residents in
the late 1960s, operates 11 drug recovery programs in the Los
Angeles area, according to the foundation’s Web site.
Men in drug recovery programs at the site pitched in alongside
students, manning shovels and lugging bags of soil and pond rocks
as part of a relandscaping effort of the outdoor spaces surrounding
the facility’s residence halls.
Students and residents planted multiple hues of pansies and
snapdragons, placing them carefully in freshly tilled soil, and
ripped out weeds and dead foliage, in an effort to “brighten
the lives of our residents,” said Robert Dhondrup,
communications associate for the Clare Foundation.
Both the design of the landscaping and its installation were
collaborative efforts between the volunteers and recovery center
residents ““ men residing at the center even handpicked many
of the plants and decorative elements, Dhondrup said.
Students at the site said working alongside those recovering at
the center helped them to both visualize the impact their efforts
would have, as well as to conquer negative stereotypes about the
homeless and those suffering from drug addiction.
“They’re just normal people in need of a little
extra help,” Bansal said.