Third Annual Community Service Day a Success
By Jennifer Hansen
October 29, 2003
University of Richmond students worked alongside faculty, staff and other eager volunteers at the third annual Community Service Day Saturday, Oct. 4.
About 650 people worked from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. to repair, paint, landscape and clean selected areas of Huguenot High School and Thompson Model Middle School, two adjacent schools on Forest Hill Avenue.
There were 60 different workstations, each with a student leader monitoring and motivating the other workers. At each station, members from different campus organizations pooled their efforts to remove tree stumps, paint auditoriums and gymnasiums, create outdoor walking paths and pick up trash. By the afternoon, the volunteers said they were able to see a real difference in the schools' appearances.
Although the majority of the 650 volunteers were University of Richmond students, Richmond faculty and staff were also involved. Early in the morning, facilities staff members transported supplies to the schools in their red Richmond pick-up trucks. They also helped plant, paint and haul supplies throughout the day. President William Cooper pushed wheelbarrows full of dirt and weeds to make way for fresh flowers and greenery in the gardens surrounding the buildings.
Senior Lindsey Stewart has attended all three Community Service Day events. She said this year was unique in that faculty and students from Huguenot and Thompson were enthusiastically involved as well.
"It was great because I worked alongside a math teacher who was really excited about seeing work done in her own school."
Grace Holcomb, coordinator of the Bonner Scholars volunteer program, helped plan the event this year. She said the one-day event had fostered a long-term relationship with the two schools.
"We get to do this one day plunge," Holcomb said, "and really make an immediate difference in the learning environment of the schools. But by the time all the planning is done, and Community Service Day happens, we have formed a real partnership with each school."
This is the third year the University has devoted the day to Richmond public schools. Holcomb said the event has encouraged Richmond students to get involved with public schools, and many students volunteer with the schools even after Community Service Day.
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