Instead of relaxing this Saturday, senior marketing major Pat Kaiser plans to wake up early and give back to his community.

Kaiser is among about 1,500 NIU students volunteering Saturday for the third annual NIU Cares Day. About 90 teams have signed up thus far, which includes student organizations, groups of friends and residence hall floors. All volunteers will receive a shirt and lunch.

“It will be nice to see so many different people around campus getting together on the same day for one giant project of service to the community,” Kaiser said.

Volunteers will start their day off with a 9 a.m. kickoff in the Chick Evans Field House and then be sent out to one of the 65 to 70 sites to do one of many community service type of activities in DeKalb and Sycamore until about 2 p.m.

“It’s really just a time where we can bring the students, staff and faculty together to do service in DeKalb and Sycamore,” said Becky Harlow, Parents’ Association and Volunteerism assistant director.

One new aspect of this “campus, community day of service” is that all volunteers are being asked by the Omega Delta fraternity to bring at least two addresses to the event so that a letter from St. Jude’s Hospital can be sent out to them to solicit for donations, Harlow said. The overall goal in the letter writing campaign is to send out a total of 5,000 letters.

The Neighborhood Improvement Coordination Effort program is another new addition to the service day event.

Rick Monas, DeKalb Public Works director, said this pilot program is aimed to put a positive spin on Property Maintenance Code Enforcement, which is a key concern of the city of DeKalb. This allows the city the opportunity to offer those with property maintenance code violations a way for the city to help fix the violations instead of issuing a ticket. NIU students, city staff, Lowe’s, 2050 Sycamore Rd, and Waste Management, among others, are helping with the program.

“It’s beneficial to the community as a whole, and the partnerships from there have yet to be realized,” Monas said.

Many other community groups will also be involved with NIU Cares Day such as schools from DeKalb School Dist. 428, DeKalb Park District, local churches, DeKalb and Sycamore Public Libraries and Kishwaukee Community Hospital.

The hope is that this day of service will be a stepping stone for students.

“We are just giving them tools and providing examples of different things they can do,” Harlow said.

For more information about NIU Cares Day, contact the Student Involvement and Leadership Development Office in the Campus Life Building, Room 150. Any person who has not signed up and wants to is also welcome to come at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Chick Evans Field House to register.