This Saturday, students can participate in Eastern’s 25th annual Make a Difference day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Library Quad.

The volunteer event will feature different service projects students can participate in as a part of National Make a Difference day.

While National Make a Difference Day is not until Oct. 24, Eastern will be have their own Make a Difference Day, because the official day falls on Eastern’s homecoming weekend.

Kelsi Grubisich, the graduate assistant for Students Community Services, said “Make a Difference” is where people all over the nation participate in different volunteer services.

“National Make a Difference Day is a day of community service,” Grubisich said. “It’s across the nation where we all unite in a common mission.”

Grubisich said this is the largest day where the nation comes together to work together on different community service projects.

“We will be doing indirect service projects, which is also our service-to-go projects,” Grubisich said. “We’ll have projects for school supplies, we’re going to be making folders for kids for school, we’ll have Cheerio bird feeders, we have some gel packs for the senior citizens we’ll be making.”

Grubisich said the Cheerio birdfeeders will go to Douglas-Hart Nature Center, who are also partners with the student community services.

“We will have Hit-Mix coming out with the event. There will be live music,” Grubisich said.

Since the event is on campus, students are able to participate and help with these different community service projects.

“Here on EIU’s campus, it’s open to any students who are interested,” Grubisich said. “All they have to do is come out to the quad and we will have the projects set up and they can sign in and start volunteering.”

Grubisich said the event has had the same amount of student turnout every year, which is usually about 100 students.

“I think this year, we were planning for around 100 (students), maybe a little more,” Grubisich said. “It’s been about the same every year.”

Aside from National Make A Difference Day, student community services also have a few other large community service opportunities, including Jumpstart 2 G.I.V.E., Panther Service Day, and the Martin Luther King Day of Service.

“We offer many opportunities for service through the year,” Grubisich said. “National Make A Difference Day is one of our four major events that we host. It’s one of our service days, which means that we have more than one service project going on that day.”

Any students who are interested in participating can go to the quad and sign up for the projects.

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or lpmartinez@eiu.edu