blog
Students Clean the East Bay Despite Funding Shortfalls
Though Berkeley Project Day had a $2,000 funding shortfall this year, approximately 1,700 student volunteers at the University of California-Berkeley gathered to clean streets and parks in the East Bay.
This was the fourth year running for the program, and though the number of student volunteers dropped by 200, coordinators of the project made up for the loss of people and lack of funding by efficiently using resources and carefully selecting project sites.
According to senior Emily Ng, Co-Finance Director of the event, most local companies that donated to the event in past years refused to donate this year primarily due to poor financial situations. Funding for Berkeley Project Day goes to providing student volunteers with T-shirts, meals, transportation and tools.
Luckily, the program secured the UC Berkeley Chancellor's Community Partnership Fund and a grant from the City of Berkeley this year.
Volunteers cleaned less a little less than 70 sites in a single day, and focused their efforts mostly on Berkeley.
Though the event was executed on a smaller scale this year, Executive Director and senior Steven Nguyen said volunteers were just as productive and committed to the ultimate goal of the project—to keep Berkeley and Oakland clean.
More from the Daily Californian at UC Berkeley




