AUSTIN, Texas—Thousands of hours of volunteer work will be performed by students, faculty and staff members from The University of Texas at Austin on Saturday, Feb. 25, when they join residents near the St. John Community Center in northeast Austin in a massive clean-up, painting and planting project in that area.
The university’s volunteers will be working with Pickle Elementary, Webb Middle School, the St. John Park and Pool, and St. John Community Center, as well as other community resource facilities in the area bordered by I-35, U.S. 290 and U.S. 183, said Lan Nguyen, chair of the initiative called Project 2006.
“Our goal is to make these locations a safer and cleaner environment for the community,” said Nguyen, who estimates about 1,500 members of the university community will participate in the event this year. They will work in shifts from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Nguyen said that throughout the day buses would pick up volunteers from the bus turn-around near the East Mall Fountain on San Jacinto Street at 23rd Street and transport them to and from the project area.
Nguyen said that at Buttermilk Creek and nearby streets, volunteers plan to create a wetland, clear brush, pick up trash and repair fences.
For more information contact: Glen Baumgart, Volunteer Center, 512-471-1201 or 512-699-0641, or Robert D. Meckel, Office of Public Affairs, 52-475-7847.