EVENTS SET FOR MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY TODAY

Volunteers in Southeast Missouri will join more than 1 million Americans today to help the less fortunate during Make A Difference Day.

Around the country, volunteers will paint, clean up, sew, make lunches, collect food and generally lend a hand for the event, sponsored nationally by USA Weekend and Points of Light Foundation.

Students in Gamma Sigma Sigma, a service sorority at Southeast Missouri State University, will make quilts for at-risk babies today at Memorial Hall on the Southeast campus. The sorority has made the quilts, which are sent to St. Louis, for the last few years as part of Make A Difference Day.

Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority will hold a Halloween party for children today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the University Center. The party wraps up the sorority's "Sigma Serves Children Week."

Students of Free Enterprise, a campus organization, will hold a Cyberspace party for sixth-graders at Dempster Hall on campus this morning.

The Area Wide United Way's Board of Directors will be at work today painting the gymnasium floor at the Cape Civic Center.

USA Weekend, which initiated the event, will feature volunteers and their projects in articles and photos to be published in April.

Each year, $120,000 in awards are made to projects that capture the Make A Difference Day spirit.