Step Forward Day 2011 Heralds Annual Day of Service
Pepperdine Magazine is the feature magazine for Pepperdine University and its growing community of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends.
Pepperdine students, faculty, staff, and alumni kicked off the school year by giving back to the community at the 23rd annual Step Forward Day on September 10. The yearly day of service united approximately 1,400 participants in service 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,” says Meredith Miller, assistant director of the Pepperdine Volunteer Center. “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.”
This year the Salvation Army joined the almost 65 community partners participating in the event and hosted a team of 100 Waves to set up obstacle courses and other outdoor activities for the Malibu Canyon Dirt Dash. Funds raised at the sixth annual event will send approximately 2,000 children of low-income families to camp each summer.
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, 23 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.
Learn more about the Pepperdine Volunteer Center »[BROKEN LINK]