A couple weeks ago, we posted two stories about students stepping up to make a difference - here are two more, about Wilkes County youth cleaning up a park and Appalachian State students supporting Japan. Let's hear it for North Carolina's young people!
"Volunteers clean up Ronda Memorial Park" (From the Journal-Patriot)
RONDA, N.C. - Memorial Park, a community park in Ronda, located on the banks of the Yadkin River, underwent a facelift on Friday thanks to the help of around 40 volunteers.
The volunteers were mostly students coming from the four Wilkes County high schools who are part of Youth Leadership’s United Teens in Action (UTA) and Youth Philanthropy (T3LC) Time, Talent and Treasure Leading to Change in Wilkes County. Several adult volunteers from local businesses also worked on the project Friday.
Improving the park has been the subject of many conversations at commissioner meetings in Ronda. Earlier this year, the town applied for a $50,000 grant which would help fund permanent bathrooms costing $30,000 and playground equipment costing $20,000 at the park.
Currently the park includes a half-mile walking trail, picnic table and shelter, swings and monkey bars. It also has a boat dock onto the Yadkin River, the last designated one in Wilkes.
Dennis Huggins is the director of development for the Wilkes County Schools and the advisor for the Youth Leadership Programs volunteering on Saturday. He pointed out the project saved the town weeks of work on the park. Since the work and some of the supplies used in the daylong effort were donated, it also saved the town $3,000 to $4,000...
The T3LC youth group is a part of the North Carolina Youth Giving Network, an initiative of NCGives.
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"Appalachian State student spurs Japan effort" (From the Philanthropy Journal)
BOONE, N.C. - On a rainy spring day in March, dozens of red and white flags dotted a hillside at Appalachian State University in Boone, forming the national flag of Japan. Each individual flag represented a donation to support relief and recovery efforts in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, raising a total of about $1,600.
Several hundred students and faculty donated to the student-led effort, which was designed to raise not only money, but awareness of the devastation across the Pacific, says Zachary Stirewalt, who conceived of the flag fundraiser.
"I was concerned about the lack of interest in the crisis in Japan," says the sophomore technical-photography major. "I wasn't hearing people talking about it and I felt obligated to do something because it didn't seem as though many people were."
Working with two other student organizers and 15 to 20 student volunteers, Stirewalt set up donation tables in academic buildings across campus and on the Sanford Mall in the heart of campus, while the student union hosted a table and sold badges advertising support for Japan.
An estimated 300 to 500 people donated to the effort, and even more people have seen the makeshift Japanese flag erected on campus, a result Stirewalt is happy with, particularly given the dreary weather that day.
"It's been awesome," he says. "I've learned that the universe revolves around everybody, and everyone needs to take part in helping other people out..."
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