Volunteer Rachael Perry, 24, of the Roger Hill Volunteer Center, helps paint the bays at the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical Training Division headquarters at 225 Maine. Saturday was Make a Difference Day, with about 150 volunteers assisting the city's nonprofit organizations through nearly 20 projects.

The jarring snap of a nail gun echoed through the cluttered inside of Serenity Walters’ new house. Cardboard covered tiles to protect them from falling specks of paint, and blue tape framing the floors gave the house a construction site feel.

That’s appropriate because it is very much a work in progress. In every room of the Habitat for Humanity project, volunteers from Kansas University’s law school worked to create a home for Walters.

It was part of Saturday’s Make a Difference Day, a nationwide day of service promoted by USA Weekend, a Sunday insert of the Journal-World.

About 150 volunteers – including about 75 students and alumni of the KU law school – spread across Lawrence to clean gutters, plant flower beds, build trails and otherwise assist the city’s nonprofit organizations, said Margaret Perkins-McGuiness, manager of the Roger Hill Volunteer Center, which coordinated the day’s activities. In all, she said about 10 organizations would benefit from nearly 20 projects.

“I think that people, residents of Lawrence, really love this community, and it’s not often they have a chance to be a part of the community impact,” Perkins-McGuiness said. Make a Difference Day, she said, is a way “to give back to the community they live in and love.”

Walters, whose apartment burned down in the 2002 Edgewood Homes fire, disagreed. She said that community service is an inherent part of Lawrence. “I think this is what we do every day,” she said.

Perkins-McGuiness said she hoped the day would shed light on the many nonprofit institutions in the city.

“I think one of the things that’s really special about Make a Difference Day is that people have the opportunity to learn more about the organizations they have volunteered to help.”

Eight law students and alumni joined John Drees at Lawrence Memorial Hospital to spruce up a building he uses to test the safety of car seats. Drees, an LMH nurse, is coordinator for Safe Kids of Douglas County, an organization that provides car seats to parents.

“It’s huge,” he said of Make a Difference Day. “From a worldwide perspective, grassroots is where (volunteerism) is at. That’s where it happens, at a local level.”

Drees directed his team in painting the walls of an old fire truck bay that houses his operation, and in removing debris that could mar the image of Safe Kids’ services.

“We had a space that was given to us that was in disrepair,” Drees said. “We’re making it a clean and safe place for kids.”

At Walters’ house near Eighth and Walnut streets, Gail Agrawal, dean of the law school, stood watch over a small corps of volunteers. She said she was pleased that the law school was involved in Make a Difference Day.

“One of my interests is public service,” she said. “I feel, as a public law school, our students should be in the habit early on of public service.

“It’s a drop in the bucket, but you have to ask the people we help if we made a difference.”

If you ask Walters, the answer is an unequivocal “yes.”

“Without volunteers, it would take me a year or more to build my house. Without volunteers, I couldn’t do it myself,” said Walters, whose home is due for dedication Nov. 10.

Liz Rogers, a KU law school alumna, said volunteering in Lawrence was a way to pay homage to those who helped her.

“I think we all recognize that we’ve all gotten where we are because someone helped us along the way,” she said.