Drive, walk or ride your bike Friday (Feb. 17) to the campus’s west entry if you want to help Fill the Boot for Burns.

Members of UC Davis Fire Fighters Local 4437 will have their boots in hand, looking for donations for burn prevention and recovery programs in Northern and Central California.

Similar boot drives are being held around the nation in conjunction with National Burn Awareness Week.

Firefighter Tait Nilsson said the Local 4437 boot drive will run from 7:30 a.m. to about 4 p.m. at La Rue Road and Hutchison Drive. You will know you are in the right place when you see Engine 34 (unless on-duty firefighters are responding to a call, of course).

Nilsson said firefighters will be asking the community to help support the Firefighters Kids Camp and the Little Heroes Preschool Burn Camp, both for survivors, and other programs funded by the Firefighters Burn Institute, founded in Sacramento in 1973.

Weekend of Service recruits faculty, staff

The Community Service Resource Center is reaching out to faculty and staff to lend a hand (actually a lot of hands) during Weekend of Service. The next of the quarterly events is scheduled for Feb. 25-26 — with volunteer opportunities available on 13 community projects.

“Usually we have about 150 students who volunteer an average of four hours each,” said Amrit Sahota, a biological sciences major (econd year) and student adviser at the Community Service Resource Center.

By recruiting faculty and staff for the Feb. 25-26 weekend, the Community Service Resource Center hopes to muster a force of 200, which is the estimate of the number of people needed to complete the designated projects.

This quarter’s projects are with Angels of Hope (Winter Children’s Fair), Davis Farm to School (gardening), Davis Food Co-Op (Souper Bowl), Putah Creek Council (nursery care), Tree Davis (tree care) and the UC Davis Domes (revamping).

Online signups are under way and will close Tuesday, Feb. 21. (If you are not a student, you can skip the box that asks for student ID.)

ASAP: Meditation, 'Emotional Intelligence'

The Academic Staff and Assistance Program announced a pair of programs to ease your mind: a once-a-week meditation class and a brown bag meeting on “Emotional Intelligence … Your Hidden Edge.”

The faculty and staff meditation class, taught by ASAP Director Beth Cohen, is scheduled to meet from noon to 1 p.m., starting Feb. 15 and continuing Feb. 22 and 29, and March 7, 12 and 21. All are Wednesdays except March 12, a Monday. The meeting place is the King Room on the second floor of the Memorial Union.

This class is for all experience levels, from beginner to advanced. Cohen offers instruction in meditation deepening techniques, and breathing and mindfulness exercises, and leads lively discussions on a variety of meditation-related topics.

To sign up, send an e-mail to Sharon Ree, slree@ucdavis.edu. New participants must go through a screening process. The meeting room can hold 100, and, as of this morning (Feb. 10), about 20 spaces remained.

The “Emotional Intelligence” poster asks: “Are you so stressed out that you don’t even know how you feel most of the time? Are you challenged when it comes to handling yourself and others at work?”

If so, ASAP invites you to learn about this revolutionary concept that explores the ability to read, regulate and work with emotions effectively in yourself and with others.

“You will hear about how to strengthen your self-management, self-awareness, stress-busting and self-care. This will empower you to become the expert on yourself, what works for you at home and in your workplace, and will show you how to redefine what it means for you to be intelligent in today’s world.”

The brown bag is scheduled for the noon hour Thursday, Feb. 23, in 126 Voorhies Hall.