<div class="topimage"> <div class="image p70"><img src="images/uploads/20170426/Volunteers.jpg" /></div> <div class="cutline">UHV students Devin Luna, left, Bethani Wade and Amethyst Ayala paint the side of a house Saturday as part of the UHV Jags Join In &ndash; Day of Service event. More than 50 UHV students, faculty and staff members participated in volunteer opportunities at Adopt-A-Pet, the Food Bank of the Golden Crescent and Golden Crescent Habitat for Humanity.</div> </div> <p>Instead of sleeping in, a group of University of Houston-Victoria students chose to spend Saturday morning serving others.</p> <p>Fifty-four students, faculty and staff members participated in the UHV Jags Join In &ndash; Day of Service Saturday by volunteering at Adopt-A-Pet, the Food Bank of the Golden Crescent and Golden Crescent Habitat for Humanity. The event kicked off UHV&rsquo;s Volunteer Week activities.</p> <div class="mugshot left"> <div class="shot"><a href="images/uploads/staff/Kofron-Hilary-2016.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="images/uploads/staff/Kofron-Hilary-2016-100W.jpg" /> </a></div> <div class="name">Hilary Kofron</div> </div> <p>&ldquo;Jags Join In is an amazing opportunity for UHV students to learn about the needs in the community and see how they can help others,&rdquo; said Hilary Kofron, associate director of UHV Student Life. &ldquo;We want to inspire them and let them see that they are able to make a difference.&rdquo;</p> <p>Students at Adopt-A-Pet spent the day cleaning the animals&rsquo; living areas as well as spending time playing with the dogs and cats. The students who went to the Food Bank worked on organizing the warehouse and preparing donations.</p> <p>Vito Lozano, an Eagle Pass freshman, spent the morning with Habitat for Humanity helping to paint a house owned by Josephine Lerma. He learned the importance of discipline and involvement playing football in high school, he said.</p> <p>&ldquo;Everybody needs a little help sometimes, and I try to help out whenever I can,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s important to be involved in things like this while you&rsquo;re young so you can help others while also gaining experience. That way, you can improve yourself while you&rsquo;re making a difference to someone else.&rdquo;</p> <p>For Devin Luna, a Sinton sophomore biology major, volunteering is an ongoing goal. Luna did a lot of volunteer work as a member of the National Honor Society in high school. She recently went on UHV&rsquo;s Alternative Spring Break trip to Louisiana, where she and other UHV students helped repair homes damaged by flooding.</p> <p>&ldquo;The people in Louisiana were so grateful about what we were doing,&rdquo; Luna said. &ldquo;After that, I was excited to take part in this project. It&rsquo;s nice to see how our actions can impact the community. It&rsquo;s rewarding to see how happy the people are when the work is done.&rdquo;</p> <p>Other UHV Volunteer Week activities included preparing and serving lunch Wednesday at Christ&rsquo;s Kitchen. On Friday afternoon, students will create art with residents of Retama Manor South.</p> <p>For Lerma and her son, Richard Lerma, who lives with her, seeing the students come out on a Saturday and paint her house was an encouraging experience. In addition to painting, the students replaced rotten wood.</p> <p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s really no way to fully say &lsquo;thank you&rsquo; for all this hard work,&rdquo; Lerma said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re taking time away from working on their education to help me fix my house. They&rsquo;ve done such a good job.&rdquo;</p>