Greene County High School students, with the help of middle school students and volunteers, raked 125 yards in Jefferson, Scranton and Grand Junction in their annual service project Monday afternoon.
Now in its 18th year, the project began in the Interact Club raking 10 yards. Raking the yards of senior and disabled residents has been a school-wide service project since 1999. Middle school teachers Tom Braun and Ryan Eberly allowed their classes to rake also.
Interact advisor Teresa Green has continued to coordinate the project. The list of yards to rake is divided by location, with crews of students assigned to rake two to five yards, depending on the size of the yard and the size of crew. As crews finish their assignment, they find other crews in their area who are still raking and pitch in to finish the job. Students are transported by bus to neighborhoods not in walking distance of the school.
The success of the project depends on support from the cities and volunteers. In Jefferson, the city provides two garbage trucks to haul leaves and clears out the yard waste drop site at Daubendiek Park before and after the project. In Grand Junction, the city provided pickup trucks to haul away leaves. In Scranton, New Way provides a garbage truck.
The Jefferson Rotary Club and other volunteers drove 33 pickup trucks to take leaves to the garbage trucks or directly to Daubendiek Park. Rotary also donated leaf bags and tarps. The crews were chaperoned by leaf-wielding teachers and volunteers.
Fareway donated 42 cases of water and Home State Bank, Peoples Trust & Savings Bank and Wells Fargo donated a total of 75 dozen donuts for the students.
According to Green, the leaf raking project is a way for students to give something back to their communities. “It takes a lot of people to make a project like this come together,” Green said. “This was great having our school work with various groups to give back to our communities. We appreciate all of the help from each of these groups. We could not have completed this project without their help.”
