Greene County High School students spent a near perfect autumn day last Thursday raking 134 yards in Grand Junction, Jefferson and Scranton. Temperatures were in the mid-50s and the wind was calm; the next day was cold, windy and wet.
Teacher Teresa Green has organized the project every year of its 22-year existence, first as a project of the Interact Club, and then as a school-wide project. This year a total of 536 students and community volunteers participated.
Green thanked the Jefferson Fareway and Hy-Vee stores for each donating 12 cases of water, and Home State Bank, Peoples Bank and Wells Fargo for donating 47 dozen donuts. The Jefferson Rotary Club donated leaf bags and tarps.
She thanked the city of Jefferson for providing two garbage trucks in Jefferson, New Way for providing a garbage truck and a pickup truck in Scranton, and the city of Grand Junction and the Grand Junction office of Peoples Bank for providing pickup trucks in Grand Junction. The Jefferson city crews prepared the leaf dump site at Daubendiek Park to receive the overload of leaves and cleaned the site afterward.
Rotary Club members and local volunteers drove 40 pickup trucks to help transport leaves to the garbage trucks or Daubendiek Park. Vern Foje and Dave Walker went out on their own to prep some of the yards, Green said.
The school used eight busses to transport students to their assigned neighborhoods, as well as its pickup truck and trailer to transport eaves.
“It takes a lot of people to make a project like this come together, and we want everyone to know how much we appreciate their help,” Green said. “It was great having our school work with various groups to give back to our communities. We are thankful for all of the help from each of these groups. We could not complete this project without everyone’s support.”
