For the past eight years, California State University, Northridge’s volunteer program, Unified We Serve, has hosted the Annual Cesar Chavez Service Fair to honor the late civil rights and labor leader by encouraging community service and volunteer work among students, faculty and the community. The Cesar Chavez Service Fair this year will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 30, at the Matador Bookstore, located on the southeast side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.
About 30 nonprofit organizations are expected to gather on the bookstore lawn and offer general information, internships and volunteer opportunities to the campus community. Participants will have the opportunity to meet and engage with representatives from the organizations.
CSUN’s campus will be closed on Friday, March 31 in honor of Cesar Chavez Day, a state holiday commemorating the late icon’s birthday. Chavez was an anti-violence, civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers, which advocated on the behalf of migrant workers.
“The Cesar Chavez Service Fair and Cesar Chavez Day are important because [Unified We Serve] is celebrating Cesar Chavez’s value of service to others,” said Unified We Serve coordinator Maria Elizondo. “We’re trying to promote this value of being of service to others by bringing our students opportunities to get involved in service. We’re not just telling them to go out and get involved, but rather bringing those opportunities to campus so that we can then provide them an avenue to be involved.”
The organizations taking part in the fair include Heal the Bay, Valley Presbyterian Hospital, Youth and Science Center and the American Red Cross.
“The fair’s goal is to offer engagement avenues via volunteer opportunities to CSUN students,” Elizondo said.
In the past, attendance has reached 300 students — but this year, organizers hope to attract 500 she said.
For more information about the Cesar Chavez Service Fair, please email unifiedweserve@csun.edu or call the Matador Involvement Center at (818) 677-5111.