As a citywide community event on Saturday, April 30, Love Fullerton seeks to unite the people of Fullerton in love and faith through numerous service projects.

Love Fullerton started in Fullerton in 2014 and is only growing, according to lovefullerton.org.

OC United’s project management intern Brandon Morales said Love Fullerton is a byproduct of Unite for Cities.

“[Unite for Cities] is a movement that really catalyzes people in a simple way to do things for the rest of the year,” Morales said.

At 8 a.m., all volunteers will meet in downtown Fullerton and receive a free “I Love Fullerton” shirt. Free breakfast and coffee will be served.

During this one-day service party, volunteers will gather from more than 30 organizations including churches, schools, local business, shelters, and even the city government. After breaking into teams, participants will engage in citywide community service activities such as cleaning local neighborhoods and schools and helping those in need.

Over 70 projects will be planted throughout the city, ranging from foster care, homeless ministries, painting at local elementary schools and landscaping at local high schools.

“We only have so many initiatives and projects we can do, and we have volunteers that are passionate about so many different things,” Morales said. “We want to make sure that we plug them in somewhere that lines up with their talents.”

Fullerton College is one of several educational institutions joining this movement, marking its second year participating.

“Part of my job as [FC’s] director of campus communications is reaching out into the community and making sure the college is a good neighbor,” Lisa McPheron said. “It’s an event that thrives on sweat equity, from people doing projects.”

She added that Love Fullerton is a wonderful opportunity to get more active in the community. FC was a good fit since it could offer a myriad of volunteers in a pool of 25,000 students and 3,000 employees.

One incentive to participate was free sunglasses for the first 100 students, faculty and alumni who sign up.

This year, FC volunteers will also collect food from the food bank as a new service project.

“I’m organizing a group of 20 volunteers specifically just to be located outside of two grocery stores,” McPheron said. “We’ll have flyers and special red plastic bags so when people go in the grocery stores, we’ll give them the flyers and tell them about Love Fullerton and the food bank. [Each flyer] has a shopping list, so we’re hoping they buy things off the list.”

In addition, the campus will host an afternoon barbecue for 3,000 attendees in the quad from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Local restaurateurs, including those of Heroes Bar and Grill, will provide the food.

“What a wonderful opportunity to showcase our campus,” McPheron said. “The president will give a welcome address, so they’ll have an opportunity to hear from our leader about our education and what we offer.”

To sign up as a volunteer or check out more details on Love Fullerton, visit their website.