Berkeley Project Day 2011

October 15, 2011 – University of California, Berkeley

At eight in the morning on the Saturday of Homecoming Weekend, 1,500 students, residents, staff, alumni and retirees came together on Sproul Plaza to kick off Berkeley Project Day, Cal’s largest day of service. Now in its sixth year, Berkeley Project has grown to include service projects at 68 sites in Berkeley, Albany and Oakland and is designed for individuals and groups to join together to serve the needs of Berkeley and its residents and forge a positive relationship between the campus and the community.

While the majority of participants were students, this year a growing number of alumni and retirees returned to Cal for a day of service. Otis and Teresa Wong (both class of ‘71) heard about Berkeley Project through the UC Berkeley Retirement Center and chose to volunteer. Fitting in with the student volunteers they donned Berkeley Project’s bright green t-shirts and joined in icebreakers with their small team.

By fortunate coincidence their service site that day was Le Conte Elementary school, a mile south of campus. Otis smiled when he heard they would be volunteering at Le Conte: 50 years ago he had been a student at Le Conte from 4th-6th grade. Returning to his elementary school for the first time in many years through Berkeley Project, they volunteered in a first grade classroom organizing books by reading level and providing a mid-semester cleaning and organizing of the classroom.

Otis and Teresa both grew up in Berkeley. Even though they spent their childhoods just a few miles from each other, they did not meet until they were both students at Cal while volunteering. Forty years ago, both were enrolled in an Asian American Studies class which involved volunteering in Chinatown, San Francisco.

After meeting through service, Otis and Teresa went to graduate school at UC Berkeley, where Otis earned a Masters in Public Health (’74) and Teresa earned her Teaching Credential (’72). They settled in Berkeley, where Teresa worked nearby as a 4th grade teacher and Otis worked at UC Berkeley in the Berkeley Lab and later the Office of Assessment and Assurance.

Berkeley Project is one of many examples of the Wong’s community involvement. Their story, like those of many alumni, highlights life-long commitments to public service. Berkeley Project once again has embodied the spirit of Cal as a public university. It is a great opportunity for alumni and community members to work alongside students to serve together in the local community. Every individual serves through Berkeley Project for their own reasons, but they all experience this day of camaraderie within the Berkeley community and they get an opportunity to make life-long friends through service.

Berkeley Project is a student-run program that enlists the support of the City of Berkeley, Cal Corps Public Service Center, Berkeley Partners for Parks, Rebuilding Together, Government and Community Relations and the Homecoming Committee to leverage the resources and infrastructure of the campus and community to create such a large scale service day. Berkeley Project received generous support from the Chancellor's Community Partnership Fund and the City of Berkeley.