Approximately 150 College of Communication students will travel back to the 1840s this Saturday as they trek to Brook Farms, helping clean the former transcendentalist property, according to COM Fall Orientation Coordinator Matthew Amore.

Amore said the students were from several COM groups, including peer advisors, members of the COM students association, COM alumni, graduate students and members of Champions, which is the community service organization within COM.

The area, formerly home to Nathaniel Hawthorne, has been overrun by brush and overgrowth, according to Matt Lebovic, the Boston Cares director of volunteers. Lebovic said the COM students were volunteering to help make the property available for general use.

‘The COM students are going to clear the overgrowth and reclaim the meadow where the transcendentalists lived,’ Lebovic said. ‘They’re clearing out a meadow to make way for the public. It’s a pretty interesting project.’

Amore said while the COM Fall Orientation program had usually focused on activities that would be fun for students, he wanted to add one that would be both fun and service oriented.

‘All of the events in the past have been events that focus on just having fun like going to Salem or a Sox game and I thought it’d be a good idea to give the freshmen an idea to help out and get involved in the community,’ Amore said. ‘We got involved in Boston Cares through Matt, and we’re really excited about it.’

Amore said the group plans to leave from the COM lawn at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, and spend approximately four hours at the farm, clearing away trees and brush and making the area usable again. He said they were calling it COM Cares, modeled after the Boston Cares group that allowed COM to get involved with the project. Amore said he thought the COM freshmen would come out to help with the event, but added the timing may be bad.

‘Between 40 and 50 [will be turning out],’ Amore said. ‘A big problem is it’s a long weekend and people are going away or have friends coming to visit. We like to look at it as we’re cleaning a national landmark on a national holiday.’

Lebovic, who is helping COM Cares to organize the event, said Boston Cares currently gets requests for groups to be able to help with public service, and over half of the calls are usually from student groups.

‘The groups approach us for community service events, and we set them up with something,’ Lebovic said.

More groups are looking to get involved in community service events, and Lebovic said he would begin taking more information sessions to campuses across the cities. Boston Cares is scheduled to visit BU on Oct. 16.

‘Non-profits and other people take college students for granted and they’re calling us all the time looking to volunteer,’ Lebovic said. ‘It’s part of a campaign I’m starting called ‘Boston Cares on Campus’. We’re setting up large-scale service projects to get students in the door.’