New students volunteer at 12th annual Cornell Service Day before starting classes

MOUNT VERNON — New students at Cornell College will join faculty and staff Saturday morning volunteering in several eastern Iowa communities before starting classes Monday, Sept. 4. New Student Orientation Service Day on Sept. 2 marks its 12th year at Cornell, where approximately three-fourths of Cornell’s students participate in service projects annually. Last year nearly 350 workers donated over 1,200 hours on Service Day. Volunteers will work Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at approximately 25 sites around eastern Iowa, nearly half of them in and around Mount Vernon and Lisbon. Here is a partial list of the sites where volunteers will work: Cedar Rapids - OSADA Apartments, 905 Third St. SE: cleaning and painting apartments for MidAmerica Housing Partnership. - CSPS/Legion Arts, 1103 Third St. SE: cleaning and repair work. - Waypoint/Madge Phillips Center, 318 Fifth St. SE: cleaning house/garage, organizing donations. Mount Vernon - Davis Park and the Mount Vernon Athletic Complex: picking up litter. - Mount Vernon Fire Department and Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service: cleaning vehicles and bays. - Edith Current Memorial Gardens: helping the Mount Vernon Garden Club with weeding, mulching, planting. Lisbon - Lisbon Cemetery: laying mulch. - Lisbon City Park: landscaping, mulching. - Southeast Linn Community Center: general cleanup, kitchen organizing. Surrounding area - Crowded Closet, 1213 S. Gilbert Court, Iowa City: organizing and sorting donations. - Habitat for Humanity, 811 Hughes St., Iowa City: siding and roofing a house. - Camp Courageous, Monticello: general cleanup.