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Hundreds of volunteers Spring Into the Streets

March 24, 2009

KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University is bringing back its Spring Into the Streets community service initiative, which sends hundreds of WMU students out into the Kalamazoo community for half a day to help with a variety of worthwhile projects.

The initiative is being reintroduced from noon to 5 p.m. Friday, March 27, by the volunteer services office in Student Activities and Leadership Programs. Some 300 WMU students and organizations have signed up to participate.

"Spring Into the Streets is an awesome opportunity for students to give back to the community and show how much they care about the city we call home for much of the year," says Andrew Van Wasshnova, the 2009 event's student coordinator. "It's much more than a way of getting community service hours. It's about how your actions affect those around you and about actually getting the chance to see those effects."

Volunteer check-in for this year's Spring Into the Streets will begin at 11 a.m. at the Fountain Plaza near Miller Auditorium.

WMU President John M. Dunn will give opening remarks during a kick-off program at noon, then volunteers will spend the remainder of the day at their assigned work sites. Area organizations requesting volunteers, and the projects volunteers will assist with, are as follows:

  • Comstock Community Center, outdoor cleanup for the parks and recreation department.
  • Fair Food Matters, working at two garden sites.
  • Gospel Mission, projects pending upon arrival.
  • Kalamazoo County Poverty Reduction Initiative, assembling Poverty Simulation Kits.
  • Kalamazoo YMCA, outdoor cleanup.
  • Ministry with Community, serving food to people in need.
  • Neighborhood associations for the Arcadia, Eastside, Edison, Oakwood and Vine areas, primarily helping seniors and other neighborhood residents with beautification and outdoor clean-up projects.
  • Vineyard Outreach Ministry, outdoor cleanup.
  • WMU physical plant-landscape services, outdoor cleanup.

Spring Into the Streets is a collaboration of the University, Western Student Association, and Interfraternity and Panhellenic councils. This year, it will serve as the service event for WMU's Greek Week, which will be held March 31-April 4.

A variety of organizations in addition to the University's fraternities, sororities, professional associations and honor societies are participating, including Air Force ROTC, the Latino Student Alliance, classmembers of "Interpersonal Communication I," and the Ackley/Shilling Residence Hall's Active People Hall Council.

For more information, contact Andrew Van Wasshnova, Student Activities and Leadership Programs intern, at salp-intothestreets@wmich.edu.

Media contact: Jeanne Baron, (269) 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu

WMU News
Office of University Relations
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5433 USA
(269) 387-8400
www.wmich.edu/wmu/news