Student organizations are volunteering to support the UCLA community after fires devastated Los Angeles County.

Fires across LA – which began Jan. 7 – have burned nearly 57,000 acres of land and destroyed over 16,000 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, website. Several UCLA students suffered personal losses from the fires, including the destruction of their homes.

[Related: JANUARY 2025 FIRES]

Service organizations, pre-professional clubs and club sports have pitched in to respond to the fires.

The Student Coalition for Basic Needs – a collection of Undergraduate Students Association Council organizations that focus on advocacy, outreach and awareness about basic needs resources at UCLA – adjusted its winter quarter schedule to assist in volunteer coordination and donation for Bruin-related fire relief, including the Bruin Relief Initiative, said Maya Gheewala, the Coalition’s director in the Community Service Commission.

The Coalition will host a volunteering and fundraising event called “Housing Resilience in Los Angeles” to support people experiencing homelessness and people displaced by the fires, Gheewala added.

“For a lot of students, it’s balancing the desire to give back with the need to take care of yourself,” said Gheewala, a second-year public affairs and statistics and data science student.

Isabelle Shum, co-president of United Nations Children’s Fund at UCLA, said her group is hosting a wildfire donation drive with LA Family Housing on Feb. 4. She added that UNICEF also pivoted other volunteering events to directly help those affected by recent fires.

“We want to be super conscious about our members’ health first – their mental health and their well-being,” said Shum, a third-year biology student. “So we decided to push a lot of our opportunities later on in the quarter and allow accessibility on Zoom.”

Dermatological at UCLA, a club focused on building skin health and hygiene literacy skills, also held a donation drive for fire victims at local YMCA centers beginning Jan. 12. The group collected both monetary donations through GoFundMe and around 600 skin care kits, said Meagan Kimbrell, the club’s president.

“I was really excited about that because when things like this happen, you forget that you can actually help in a way that can be tangible to other people,” said Kimbrell, a fourth-year human biology and society student.

For many pre-professional organizations, the wildfires meant changing recruitment timelines and shifting to remote meetings.

Will Burns – co-president of The Bruin Group, a UCLA startup consulting club, – said the club moved programming online and postponed all recruitment events in the wake of the fires. Other consulting clubs on campus made similar adjustments to their winter quarter schedules after seeing the needs of students, he added.

“People are stressed out right now,” said Burns, a third-year computer science student. “People are scared. We need to push everything back.”

After moving its information session online, the club received a similar turnout to what they would have expected in-person, he said.

Clean Consulting, a pre-professional club focused on environmental justice, climate change and sustainability, also adjusted its recruitment timeline and plans in response to the wildfires, said Lilie Kulber, the club’s president.

One of its sponsored recruitment events repurposed its supplies to donate to those impacted by the fires, she said, adding that they have planned more volunteering events as well.

“We really just want to be able to bring the community together around sustainability and see how we can make an impact and help others,” said Kulber, a third-year bioengineering student.

Clean Consulting also compiled a list of items people can donate, including nonperishable foods and hygiene products. Kulber said the club’s goal is to bring the community together and raise money to help people in need, animals in shelters and land that has been burned.

[Related: Bruins volunteer, support Los Angeles community amid wildfires]

Charlotte Weymer, co-president of the Ballet Company at UCLA and a fourth-year physiological science student, said all club operations were put on hold when campus operations were curtailed, leading to significant changes in rehearsal for its April production of “Echoes from Within.”

Elena Brierley-Green, co-director of external service at the Ballet Company and a second-year psychobiology student, said the club is hosting a ballet attire and clothing drive beginning Jan. 16 to help support those who suffered from the wildfires.

“For many dancers, ballet is such an essential part of their identity,” Brierley-Green said. “Items such as their leotards or pointe shoes can carry so much sentimental value, and losing them can almost feel like losing a part of themselves.”