For the fifth consecutive year, Cornell College students, faculty and staff will spend a day prior to the start of classes painting houses, washing emergency vehicles and sprucing up the grounds at more than 20 sites throughout eastern Iowa during Cornell's New Student Orientation Service Day.
About 375 workers are expected to volunteer Saturday, Aug. 28. They will be at the sites from about 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with a lunch break at noon.
More than 7,500 hours have been volunteered at the four previous orientation service days, which is the largest single-day community service project Cornell organizes and serves as the kickoff for a year's worth of service projects. Cornell classes begin Monday, Aug. 30. During the 1998-99 school year, Cornell students, faculty and staff contributed more than 14,000 volunteer hours and 74 percent of Cornell students participated in service projects.
Some of the projects Saturday are:
Mount Vernon/Lisbon
- Washington Elementary School - repainting playground lines for games
- Nature Park - woodchipping
- Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service - washing equipment
- Abbe Creek School - exterior painting; cleaning
Cedar Rapids/Marion
- MidAmerica Housing Partnership site, 1545 2nd Ave. SE - exterior painting
- History Center, 601 First Ave. SE - moving, unpacking materials
- American Red Cross, 3601 42nd St. NE - washing emergency vehicles; cleaning
- Granger House, 970 10th St., Marion - grounds work; cleaning
