From Sacramento to Sarasota, dozens of Notre Dame clubs took on more than 150 projects last month in the spirit of Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., ’39.

The charitable work was part of the sixth annual Hesburgh Month of Service, an event sponsored by the Alumni Association to honor Father Ted’s legacy of giving and present him with a birthday gift of service.

Some clubs, such as Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, completed multiple projects. Denver took on more than a dozen, helping in blood drives, a homeless ministry, and a school clean up.

In Greater Sarasota, a group of volunteers clad in Notre Dame clothing joined the Great American Cleanup at the Emerson Point Conservation Preserve on Snead Island. Eleven volunteers in Sacramento painted a map of the United States on a playground with stars for the state capitals and a Dome to mark Notre Dame, and volunteers in Mobile painted at a school that hosts Alliance for Catholic Education students.

“The paint job was really needed and this school simply does not have the funds to be able to pay for something like that,” said Jennifer Morgan Gamble ’04.

Katie Rutledge ’04, the Alumni Association’s service program director, said stories from projects around the country are still coming in.

“Father Hesburgh often quotes from the Gospel of Matthew about the Notre Dame family’s commitment to service: ‘Whatever you did for the least of my people, you did for me’,” she said. “This rings true and I thank all of the volunteers who helped make their communities a little better this May.”