Julie Drake

LANCASTER — The City of Lancaster’s third “Love Your City” community cleanup event will coincide with Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day of Service on Jan. 17. Volunteers will meet at 8 a.m. at Desert Vineyard Church, at 1011 East Ave. I. A free lunch will be provided at noon. Community members will participate in neighborhood and desert cleanups, park beautification, anti-graffiti mural painting, block wall painting and other service projects happening across the city.

QUARTZ HILL — Chris Ulvin saved an estimated 9,588 lives over the last six years by organizing blood drives at her church, Christ Our Savior United Methodist Church. Thursday was the first blood drive of the year and Ulvin’s penultimate blood drive after 25 years of scheduling them. She is retiring. The nondescript church at the corner of 50th Street West and Columbia Way (Avenue M) is next to a beauty salon.

LANCASTER — The City of Lancaster will receive an approximately $4.95 million conditional award from the California State Department of Housing and Development for funding under the CalHome Program and the Joe Serna Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant fund to support the city’s first-time homebuyers program.