Volunteers will kick off Athens' Beautification Day tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. with speeches from OU President Roderick McDavis, Student Senate President Morgan Allen and a city official. After the speeches, volunteers will disperse to their project sites.
The Ohio University Club Sports Executive Council will manage about 10 projects, including a clean-up of Court Street, mulching at West Elementary School, painting the Dairy Barn and the distribution of educational packets about Athens' trash and recycling policies.
Carin Martin, president of the OU Synchrocats synchronized swim team, said having student participation is sensible because some students are responsible for making some of the mess and having a large number of students help clean up shows that students care about the city.
Last year, volunteers worked mainly on sprucing up West Elementary School and cleaning graffiti from city walls.
I didn't think it would make much of a difference
but I was surprised and impressed by how people responded to it said Max Laird, the event's assistant executive director. The OU Men's Water Polo Club, which ran the event last year, was the first club sports team to receive a community service award from OU, he said.
Our biggest obstacle (this year) is finding enough projects; we don't want to take away from paying jobs Laird added.
The volunteers have $3,000 to work with, including $750 from City Council and donations from other businesses, but hope to receive additional sponsorship from Uptown businesses after the weekend, the event's executive director Greg Jones said. The Dairy Barn and West Elementary School are paying for their individual projects.
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Dianne Selden
