All four Greek councils came together for a dedicated community service day for the first time Saturday.

The Interfraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council and the Panhellenic Association combined their members and efforts to serve the community in 25 different projects throughout the Ann Arbor as part of the first Greek Wide Day of Service. Members say they hope the service day, which featured 1,000 volunteers performing more than 3,000 hours of community service, will become an annual event.

LSA senior Kathryn Rosenberg, president of the Panhellenic Association, said the four councils have been working to register volunteers for the past couple of months.

“We wanted to have a visible and meaningful effect on campus,” Rosenberg said.

The service projects ranged from a bottle drive, to knitting clothes for the underprivileged, to cleaning Nichols Arboretum.

Kinesiology senior Ryan Knapp, the vice president of public relations for the IFC, said the focus of the service day was “hours not dollars.” He said if at least a fraction of the participants continue to volunteer during the year, the event will have made a “significant impact.”

“We’ve done a lot of collaborations, but nothing to this scale or this magnitude,” Knapp said.

Sanjiv Rao, president of the Multicultural Greek Council, said he expected “some kinks” in the planning for the service event. But he said he thinks the councils will know how to improve future service collaborations after working together for this project.

“We’re forcing individuals from different councils to get together, meet each other and do service,” Rao said.

Engineering senior Nick Frazier, a member of Sigma Chi fraternity, said he thinks the Greek Wide Day of Service is different from other Greek philanthropic efforts because it utilizes the strength of the entire Greek community.

“(It) is really all about trying to really motivate and show off the force of the Greek life that we really have,” Frazier said.

Frazier volunteered his time cleaning up the Miller Nature Area in Ann Arbor. He said he thinks it is important to participate in service projects in order to give back to the Ann Arbor community.

LSA sophomore Jillian Weyman, a member Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority volunteered at the Sigma Chi fraternity’s Cans for Cans Drive, in which volunteers collected recyclables and used the refunds to buy canned goods to donate. Weyman said being able to do community service with her sorority sisters added fun to the experience.

LSA senior Lauren Hartstein, vice president of recruitment for Panhellenic Association, spent time volunteering at the Ann Arbor Salvation Army on Service Day. She said she thought the day was effective because it had a local impact.

“Accessible philanthropy is perfect for college students,” she said. “We all have our own values and different interpretations of sisterhood and brotherhood, but our community as a whole is supposed to have a philanthropic purpose so I think this is pretty on key of what we want to be doing more often on campus.”

Hartstein added that she hopes the project will become more of a “foundation” rather than a once in a while event.

LSA senior Madeline Klein, vice president of programming for the Panhellenic Association, said she thinks it is beneficial for the members of the Greek community to interact with members of the Greek councils that they are not a part of.

She added that she hopes Greek Wide Day of Service participants will find projects that they are truly passionate about and that the efforts will extend far beyond this one day.

“Yes, you can get involved on this one day and make an impact, but you may find a project that you love and can get involved with more in the future,” she said.

— Liana Rosenbloom contributed to this report.