UCLA Volunteer Day: A Legacy of Service and Community Engagement

UCLA Volunteer Day stands as a testament to the university's commitment to public service and community engagement. From its inception, it has grown into a significant event, embodying the "True Bruin" spirit by uniting students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members in a collective effort to serve Los Angeles and the world.

A History of Growth and Impact

Launched on September 22, 2009, UCLA Volunteer Day was envisioned as the nation’s largest service project for new university students. What began with 4,000 participants and eight service projects has expanded to involve more than 8,000 UCLA community members at sites reaching every major community in the city. The Volunteer Center has since broadened its scope to organize more than seven other unique annual programs and events that involve the greater Bruin community in civic engagement.

In its early years, the event saw participation from over 5,000 first-year students, staff, faculty, and alumni, marking it as the largest one-day service event in UCLA’s history. UCLA’s annual Volunteer Day expanded, uniting more than 2,000 Bruins and Trojans in more than 60 volunteer projects.

A Global Reach

Volunteer Day extends far beyond the borders of Los Angeles. Bruins have served communities around the world, from Hong Kong to Kyrgyzstan, New York to Seattle, and more than ever before all over greater Los Angeles.

One year, the day of service included plans for six international projects: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Shenzhen, China; a beach clean-up in Tokyo; distributing donated toys in Taipei; helping quadriplegics in Hong Kong; and raising money for children in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, one Bruin organized a “plogging” event - picking up trash while jogging - at a park and library. Alumnus and organizer Carlos Collard remembered spending countless hours volunteering when he was a student. “I thought, this is an opportunity to do something special in a special year for UCLA, and to have friends in another country experience this,” Collard said. Seventy volunteers turned out in Kyrgyzstan, and the good deeds spread when city trash workers happened to see the volunteers and offered to drive their trash truck over so volunteers wouldn’t have to haul 100 bags of trash.

Diverse Projects, United Purpose

UCLA’s service to the community includes neighborhood and K-12 beautification projects, serving food at shelters, giving blood, packing materials for science lessons at low-income schools, and more projects to help the unhoused, the food insecure, the environment, and animals. Volunteers participate at 40+ community partner sites providing critical service work, beautification, and support at food banks, parks, shelters, senior centers, schools, veterans’ facilities, and various other community organizations.

In west Los Angeles, dozens of students shoveled mulch, weeded garden beds, and raked leaves at the Veterans Native Garden on the campus of the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. The 14-acre garden was adopted several years ago by the UCLA Veterans Resource Center and the UCLA Student Veterans of America chapter.

A small contingent from the UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Law teamed up with Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust to help clean Avalon and Gage pocket park in South Los Angeles.

Honoring Veterans

Volunteers have honored veterans by cleaning headstones at the Los Angeles National Cemetery. After the headstones were sprayed with an environmentally friendly enzyme, participants were asked to scrub them for 20-30 seconds with water and brush. The enzyme did the rest of the work. UCLA alumni Jackie Toenniessen, brought her children Isabelle and Nicolas to Los Angeles National Cemetery to clean veterans’ headstones.

Environmental Stewardship

Volunteer Day has coincided with National Public Lands Day, and Bruins nationwide joined environmentally focused projects. “It was important to volunteer in the Bristol Marsh Cleanup because it was an opportunity for Bruins to protect a unique and important environmental resource,” said alumna Noelle Watanabe. “By picking up plastic, glass, Styrofoam, cigarette butts, and more, we help keep the community's water clean and protect this delicate ecosystem that supports many species of birds, plants, and mammals.

A Gateway to Lifelong Service

For many Bruins, Volunteer Day becomes a gateway to year-round service through the center’s other volunteer opportunities. As Chancellor Gene Block noted, “The spirit of a public university is public service… This is really a visible day for public service, and I know that many of you who volunteer today will want to come back and volunteer more through the Volunteer Center.”

The Role of the UCLA Volunteer Center

The UCLA Volunteer Center, led by the UCLA Alumni Association, runs Volunteer Day annually at the beginning of the school year. The UCLA Volunteer Center coordinates service activities on campus and throughout Greater Los Angeles to inspire members of the extended UCLA family to give of their time and talent. As part of the Student Affairs, the Center strives to make a positive impact upon UCLA and the Greater Los Angeles community.

At UCLA, there are many ways to give back to the community. Through the Volunteer Center, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members can participate in ongoing and annual service opportunities, suggest volunteer site locations, and lead service projects. The Volunteer Center also maintains an online listing of campus-wide service groups and a volunteer database of community service opportunities. The Volunteer Center also serves as a model for the planning, design, implementation, and management of large-scale community projects that can be replicated by other universities, companies, and organizations.

The Center was launched by its first project: UCLA Volunteer Day on September 22, 2009, which has become the nation’s largest service project for new university students.

Impact and Mission

With the support of UCLA volunteers, the Impact Report details how the Volunteer Center is able to fulfill our mission to inspire the more than 500,000 members of the extended UCLA family, as well as the community at large, to create social change through lifelong participation in volunteer programs and civic engagement. The UCLA Volunteer Center coordinates service activities on campus and throughout Greater Los Angeles to inspire members of the extended UCLA family to give of their time and talent. As part of the Student Affairs division, the Center strives to make a positive impact upon UCLA and the Greater Los Angeles community.

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Testimonials and Personal Experiences

Martinez felt the anticipation build as she started on this new adventure, moving as one body toward a single mission: to help others. “You feel like you are a part of this bigger community,” she reminisced. Her destination back then was the Veterans Home of California - West Los Angeles, where she worked in the garden and played Bingo with a group of veterans.

Volunteer Day was only the beginning for Martinez, now a double major in political science and geography/environmental studies. Six months after Volunteer Day, Martinez experienced a flashback. “Just at that moment, it really clicked in me, and I knew that even the small amount of time I spent with them meant so much.

Munoz recalled the excitement of seeing UCLA students spill out of school buses that pulled up to the building. “I didn’t realize the impact that this would have on my community and my kids,” Munoz said of last year’s event. “It gave my students a sense that, ‘One day, I’m going to UCLA, and I’m going to be a Bruin.’ Our conversations are now greater and larger in scope. Parents are asking more questions. “They literally planted the seeds in planters, and now they are grown,” she said, noting that UCLA helped create a special reading garden at the school. “This was our first [partnership] with a major university,” said Munoz. “It may seem like it’s just aesthetics that they’re bringing, but we’re getting ready for something bigger - our kids are going to college when they grow up.

Chrissie Sohn, a New Mexico native who, with her Singaporean roommate, was seeing Los Angeles outside of campus for the first time since the two started college. One of the La Tijera teachers even gave them a motherly pep talk, which they said felt comforting since they were both missing their moms.

Edison Song said, “There are more and more people in China with pets, and we hope everyone can treat their pets with kindness and respect.

Safety Measures

In alignment with University of California policy, all UCLA students and employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to campus. To further promote safety, volunteer site leaders will have kits with extra masks and disinfecting wipes, and all volunteers will follow COVID protocols before volunteering.

A Legacy of Leadership

Departing UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, who launched the event in 2009, was recognized at a cleanup. Event organizers presented a plaque to Chancellor Block and Carol Block, who together launched UCLA Volunteer Day in 2009.

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