DeKALB | Students, staff and alumni gathered in the Chick Evans Field House Saturday morning to kick off NIU Cares Day, a day when NIU shows appreciation for the community through service.

This was the 11th year for NIU Cares Day. The event had about 60 community sites, 850 student volunteers and 50 staff and alumni volunteers, said Liz McKee, assistant director for Community Service at Student Involvement & Leadership Development and chair of NIU Cares Day.

“NIU Cares Day is just such a collaboration across the university and the community,” McKee said. “I think it’s a really special day out of the year. We’re always really excited to have it.”

This year, the NIU Cares Day committee worked with the Alumni Association to get more alumni involved in the event, McKee said. The alumni volunteers did project site visits throughout the day.

Volunteers checked in between 7 to 8 a.m. to enjoy pastries, coffee and yoga before the 8:15 a.m. event.

The event began with a video on safety and an introduction from Jill Zambito, director for SILD; Kelly Wesener-Michael, associate vice president of Student Affairs; and President Doug Baker.

In the months before the event, students signed up in teams of 10 or less. McKee said teams are limited in size so that volunteers can be best distributed to community sites.

Teams were assigned on the day of the event to community sites, which ranged from non-profit organizations to DeKalb residents’ homes. Volunteers worked from 9 a.m. to noon doing a variety of things at the sites.

Most sites needed help with spring cleaning, McKee said.

“Sometimes it doesn’t seem as pretty or fun, but it’s really, really important to the success and the impact that our non-profits and residents can have in our community,” McKee said.

One location that had volunteers doing spring cleaning was St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 900 Normal Road. Student volunteers from Alpha Sigma Alpha and Kappa Delta Chi sororities helped with weeding and mulching the grounds and cleaning out the church’s basement.

Rick Johns, junior warden of the church and the site’s coordinator, said it is difficult for his congregation to do some of these tasks since many of them are older and unable to do a lot of physical work.

“It does us an amazing amount of good to get our grounds clean,” Johns said.

Some sites had volunteers doing work other than spring cleaning.

The Opportunity House of Sycamore, an agency that serves adults with developmental disabilities, had volunteers helping clients make fairy gardens, which are miniature gardens meant to bring good luck, in flower pots at their 357 N. California St. facility.

“[NIU Cares Day] just gives the clients a chance to meet some new people and meet some new friends,” said Kelsey Quinn, recreation coordinator at Opportunity House.

Some students assigned to this location were from Rehabilitation Counseling Student Association, including Angelica Allen, graduate rehabilitation counseling student. Allen was happy to be assigned to the Opportunity House because it relates to her field of study.

“It’s nice to give back and do service because this is what I’m working for, you know, and it’s nice just relaxing,” Allen said.

The Rehabilitation Counseling services were the first to sign up for NIU Cares Day, Wesener-Michael said during the introduction. In addition, Sigma Kappa had the most students volunteer for the event with more than 50 individuals participating in the event.

“I think [NIU Cares Day is] something that we can be really proud of, and I’m always really excited to see the number of students that we have showing … their passion for the community,” McKee said.