VOLUNTEERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - More than 150 volunteers have pledged to help make a difference today, fencing an equestrian center for disabled kids, building a school garden, sprucing up the Boys & Girls Club and helping mentally disabled Saugus residents settle in new homes.

Today, across the nation, is Make A Difference Day - a celebration of neighbors helping one another.

In Santa Clarita, workers will meet at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall for a breakfast rally, then head to their work sites. Volunteers were recruited from local businesses and neighborhoods.

Twenty volunteers will help assemble furniture and set up kitchens and linen closets in new homes at LARC Ranch, a Bouquet Canyon home for developmentally disabled adults. Residents will move next month from dormitory-style housing to cottages.

``It's wonderful,'' said LARC staff member Kathleen Sturkey. ``They're helping us get ready for the residents to move in.''

A handful of volunteers is heading to the Single Mothers Outreach home to paint and put up shelves in a pantry while 24 volunteers will gather to paint four rooms at Newhall Elementary School for Theatre Arts for Children Inc.

Another group will work outdoors at Newhall Elementary creating a school garden - weeding, landscaping, building a fence and adding planter boxes.

At Carousel Ranch, a therapeutic horseback program for disabled children, 16 volunteers have signed up to remove a damaged fence and replace it. About 20 people will gather at the Santa Clarita Valley Boys & Girls Club to clean up, paint, wash windows and spruce up the Newhall clubhouse.

Two dozen will join the board and staff of the Santa Clarita Child & Family Center to clean up its old facility as the agency moves to new headquarters.

The event is coordinated by the Santa Clarita Valley Resource Center, the city of Santa Clarita and the United Way to promote volunteerism.