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Pepperdine Community Serves Its Neighbors for Step Forward Day 2012

Students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Pepperdine University will start the new academic year as they mean to go on this Saturday, Sept. 8, as the University community joins together in acts of service for Step Forward Day. 

The yearly day of service unites approximately 1,400 participants in projects around campus, across the nation, and around the world.

"Any college or university can be an environment where the community gets really wrapped up in campus life," Meredith Miller, assistant director of the Pepperdine Volunteer Center, told Pepperdine Magazine at last year's Step Forward Day. "To kick off our year getting to know our community again and getting connected to our neighbors is really significant and sets a major tone for doing both."

Step Forward Day began on the Malibu campus in 1988, when two students recognized the need for volunteers in the local community and wanted to share their passion for service with their peers. The projects began as small acts of service from helping with repairs on homes of local senior citizens to planting gardens at Webster Elementary.

Now, 24 years later, the reach of Step Forward Day has grown to include work with over 60 organizations spanning from Ventura County to downtown Los Angeles and alumni chapters across the nation and world. Participants this year include the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley, Malibu, West Valley, and Thousand Oaks, Faith in Christ Ministries, FOOD Share, and United Cerebral Palsy, amongst many others.

Visit the Pepperdine Volunteer Center website for a full list of Step Forward Day 2012 participants and more information.