San Francisco  September 22, 2007

Alliant Community Makes a Difference for Kids, Pets, Refugees, the Environment and More on Oct. 25

In the weeks leading up to Saturday, October 25, students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of Alliant International University will demonstrate their commitment to serving diverse and underserved populations by reaching out to communities through volunteer activities. Plans range from sprucing up low-income housing to collecting school supplies for orphans in Tijuana, delivering food for the pets of shut-ins and creating origami for children in hospitals.

The University-wide "Alliant Makes a Difference Day" is being organized by I-MERIT, Alliant's International and Multicultural Education, Research, Intervention, and Training initiative. I-MERIT Director Dr. Kumea Shorter-Gooden said, "Through our students’ field placement work, our faculty’s scholarship, and our staff’s volunteerism, Alliant makes a difference every day of the year. But we wanted to bring our entire community together, crossing the boundaries between campuses, between students, staff, faculty, and alumni, and reaching out to our larger Alliant family all over the world."

Alliant's Make a Difference Day is being planned in coordination with the annual national Make a Difference Day, which is an now in its 18th year. The national event is sponsored by USA Weekend Magazine. In 2005, more three million people from across the US participated.

Dr. Geoffrey Cox, Alliant International University President said, "The goal of Alliant Makes a Difference Day is to increase involvement in our communities by engaging students, faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni/ae in community-service learning projects that expand our understanding of the needs of the populations with whom we work, play, and live. As a University dedicated to community engagement and the improvement of society, these activities help define what it means to be part of the Alliant community."

Local Area Plans for Alliant Makes a Difference Day:

Alliant Campus	Activities	Campus Coordinator Email	Notes
Fresno	Food drive and sorting  food at a food bank on Oct. 25	Shirley Baker: sbaker@alliant.edu
Irvine/ Orange County	Collection of supplies to take to Corazon De Vida in Tijuana, which supports orphanages. They are fundraising now, and a group will visit the orphanage to deliver donations in person (Space is limited) . Online donation page - Target is to raise $1000 Donation boxes on campus (see details at right)  Three “Eat & Paint” events are being held to create a mosaic for children at the orphanage	Raji Natrajan-Tyagi: rnatrajan@alliant.edu	The group is going to Tijuana on October 18. Trip costs $40 and members are raising that money in donations. Cost includes bus ride, lunch and a crafts at the orphanage. Donations needed: bath tissue, diapers, baby wipes, Q-Tips, laundry detergent, liquid dish soap, bleach, Pine Sol, deodorant, shampoo, mops, push brooms, plastic dishes, Tupperware, utensils, Enfamil, white socks, bath towels (No used items, please.)
Los Angeles	Food drive for LA food bank Clothing drive for the “Women Helping Women” program “Stitch and Bitch” project is making blankets for babies and elders in convalescent homes Cleanup of Santa Monica beach Team Alliant will participate in the AIDs Walk Los Angeles (Sunday, Oct. 19th - Adrianna Kleimen - akleiman@alliant.edu Fund raising to repair an orphanage in Liberia. A bake sale benefit will be held the week of Oct. 20-24th. Rochelline Marshall-Davis - rmarshall-davis@alliant.edu	Denise Lopez: dlopez@alliant.edu	Women Helping Women assists low-income women to get into the labor market; clothes are used when they are interviewing for jobs Mother of an employee is teaching knitting and crocheting to volunteers. People can participate in the AIDS Walk by either registering and joining the 6.2 mile walk and/or donating funds to support HIV/Aids prevention and cure. Our AIDS Walk team is named “Team Alliant” and is team #3408. To join us or pledge your support, see our team web page
Mexico City	Project will assist refugees in Mexico City	Jason Platt: jplatt@alliant.edu
San Diego	Revitalizing low-income housing via one-day cleanup and facelift Border project highlighting immigration problems; presentation will take place right at the fence between US & Mexico	Guadalupe Corona: gcorona@alliant.edu
San Francisco	Panel for adults on learning disabilities will be with the East Bay Learning Disability Association: Nina Ghiselli- nghiselli@alliant.edu Collecting books for Bookshare.com - online books for people with disabilities: Nina Ghiselli - nghiselli@alliant.edu City Slicker Farms - Groups of 5-7 will help at Farmer’s Market, assist in community gardens, and/or build backyard plots for underserved West Oakland residents: Cybele Gerachis- cgerachis@alliant.edu PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support)- 4 groups of 2-3 people will distribute pet food for people who cannot take care of their own pets due to AIDS or other illness: Mel Schwartz - mschwartz@alliant.edu NO Ifs Ands or BUTTS About It Dolores Park cleanup and fresh baked goods or ice cream with Ned Doherty ndoherty@alliant.edu Surfrider Foundation- groups of people will stencil storm drains Clothing Drive: Dress for Success  Food Drive for SF Food Bank Manuel and Letty Project - Students from the Multicultural Student Alliance will be working with Manuel's niece to provide much needed school supplies to her undergraduate psychology program in Mexico. Children’s Hospital Oakland projects - supplies will be located in the alumni reading room throughout the week-donations welcome. See projects at right.	Cybele Gerachis: cgerachis@alliant.edu	PAWS group will need at least one person with a car per group. Cigarette butts are actually tiny packets of toxins that, once littered, enter our marine ecosystems and wreak havoc and wildlife and water quality! Tons of garbage and toxic liquids get washed into our storm drains and oceans every year. Surfrider is trying to prevent litter, trash or oil from being dumped, and they can lend stencil kits to individuals and groups. Over 80% of Bay Area drains are not labeled. Children's Hospital Projects: Cards: Create positive message cards for patient meal trays Activity Bags: Create activity packets by packing re-plastic bags with crayons, cards, stickers and things to do Favors: Make tray favors or origami for patient meal trays. (Heidi Cash will supervise an origami workshop Thurs. Oct 23rd- Time TBD) Sew a quilt or wheelchair backpack. E-mail cgerachis@alliant.edu for the pattern Stitch and Bitch – Interested in knitting baby booties, baby blankets or chemo caps? Meet with Meg Hardin and Katherine King  Tues. 12-1pm in the PO lounge starting  Sept. 30. Bring your own needles; do not use wool .
Sacramento	TBD	Beth Limberg: blimberg@alliant.edu

"We hope that Alliant Makes a Difference Day will become an annual tradition that provides opportunities to learn and to give," said President Cox. " The day of service is a voluntary activity that offers the opportunity for those who want to make a special effort, and it also celebrates those on our campuses who already do so much for their communities."

Because of the University's deep-rooted commitments to diversity and equal opportunity and because internships are built into many of its degree programs, the communities around our campuses benefit in many ways. Those benefits begin with students: California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) students alone provide over one million hours of service annually to their local communities; postdoctoral CSPP graduates provide an additional 425,000 hours of professional service in the United States in preparation for licensure. Graduate School of Education students contribute to inner-city classrooms as teachers and student teachers, while Marshall Goldsmith School of Management students contribute to local businesses as interns, consultants and employees. Alliant faculty members impart the value of community service with their lectures and their deeds: as scholar-practitioners and many have active professional practices where they contribute to schools, communities and businesses.

In addition, many of Alliant's campuses have on-going volunteer and social justice projects which involve staff, faculty and studeent. Many of these are listed in the Alliant Interactive Calendar. The San Francisco Campus, for example, supports the following projects:

• Citizen's Advisory Panel on Emergency Readiness, City of Richmond  - The city's emergency preparedness materials are all in English, and the city is in need of versions of the key documents translated into other languages. We will provide Word files with English versions of the documents that we'd like to get translated.
• Tiny Tickets - old BART cards with 5, 10 or 90 cents left are collected to Meals on Wheels; collection envelopes are located in the alumni reading room and President's Office kitchen
• Click It - Help us make an impact in the world by clicking on a website each day and during the National Make a Difference week . There are six  interlinking sites that raise donations: www.thehungersite.com  

 I-MERIT serves as the home for the University’s diversity initiatives, which are aimed at institutionalizing multicultural and international values and perspectives in all of Alliant’s education and training programs and in its organizational culture.