UCM News

Record number of UCM students turn out for Community Service Day

(Courtesy photo) UCM students help Warrensburg Main Street officials renovate the backs of buildings along West Pine Street by painting.

(WARRENSBURG, Mo.) – More than 650 University of Central Missouri students volunteered their services to the community Wednesday as part UCM’s 2012 Homecoming Community Service Day.

The students worked on a variety of tasks from yard work, painting and trash pick-up to cooking and planting trees.

Kristie Brinkley, UCM’s assistant director of student activities for volunteer and non-traditional student services, said the turnout set a new record for UCM’s community service days.

“This is the largest group of student we’ve ever had sign up and participate in one of our community service days,” Brinkley said. “We had 515 participate in the Homecoming Community Service Day last year, and that was a record. It continues to grow each year.”

Student volunteers were sent out to 43 locations in Warrensburg. Many worked in small groups, completing tasks such as cleaning churches and doing fall yard work for senior citizens.

More than 100 students assisted Warrensburg Main Street with downtown cleanup and the renovation of the backsides of buildings along the south side of West Pine Street.

A group of young women, under the supervision of UCM construction management student Paige Becker, began placing siding on the new Habitat for Humanity home. The project is a joint effort by Habitat for Humanity of Johnson County, UCM and the Warrensburg School District.

The men of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity worked under the supervision Melissa Gower, director of the Warrensburg Senior Center, preparing breakfast burritos.

As she and her Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority sisters swept the sidewalks of West Pine Street, UCM student Carly Franzoi joined explained the importance of the community service day.

“This is our community. This is where we live,” she said. “It’s important to be a part of what makes it a place where we all want to live. And this experience will be part of what I will take with me when I finish my degree and leave Warrensburg.”

 

 

[email_link]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *