About 300 MSU students are expected to volunteer in the Lansing area on Saturday.

Into the Streets, a student community-service group, will kick off fall activities by sending participants to 16 volunteer sites in the Lansing area to work with issues such as homelessness, hunger, domestic violence and community development.

Registration for the event begins at 9 a.m. in N-130 Business College Complex. Participants will pick the site they are interested in at registration, and positions will be given on a first-come, first-served basis.

The MSU Service-Learning Center began the program in 1991 to connect students with their surrounding community. Into the Streets hosts six to eight project days each school year, including one on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January.

Volunteer agencies include Advent House Ministries, the American Red Cross and Woldumar Nature Center. One of the volunteer sites new to the program this year is the Northtown Neighborhood Association’s Paint-a-Place, where participants will paint a house for senior citizens.

Carlos Fuentes, assistant director for the Service-Learning Center and the adviser to the project, said every site has something unique to offer the volunteers.

“Students don’t realize what they have,” he said. “And that’s energy. The energy students bring is a charge to the community and the agencies. It’s human power.”

Andrea Hart, an English senior and chair of the program said the event also serves as a good team-building activity. She said there is a wide variety of students who attend, including residence hall mentors, students from leadership classes and those in campus management groups.

“The good thing is that you can come and volunteer once and see where you fit in,” Hart said. “Sometimes students get stuck on campus, and this allows them to immerse themselves in the community.”