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"Time to Serve" Program Honored by
Keep Michigan Beautiful
Inc.
Posted October 1, 2001
HOLLAND -- The "Time to Serve" volunteer program
at Hope College has been chosen to receive a 2001
Distinguished Service Award from Keep Michigan Beautiful
Inc.
The college is being recognized for the fall,
2000, installment of the program, through which some 100
Hope students did volunteer work in the Holland area on
Saturday, Sept. 2. The award will be presented on Thursday,
Oct. 11, during Keep Michigan Beautiful Inc.'s Annual
Conference, being held at the Holiday Inn Gateway Centre in
Flint.
"I am thrilled that our students are being
recognized for this program," said Diana Breclaw, who is
director of student activities at Hope and staff coordinator
for "Time to Serve." "They had a great time working
together and helping to make their mark in their new home of
Holland."
"Time to Serve," which debuted last fall, is
geared toward the members of Hope's newly-arrived freshman
class, and runs as a follow-up to the college's New Student
Orientation which runs the prior weekend. According to
Breclaw, "Time to Serve" has two main goals: first, to help
students appreciate the importance of giving of themselves,
and, second, to give the members of the college's newest
class an opportunity to become further acquainted.
In "Time to Serve's" 2000 debut, the 100-plus Hope
students who participated worked in teams of about 10 at as
many sites. Projects on the rainy Saturday ranged from
cleaning at Community Kitchen and the Boys and Girls Club of
Greater Holland, to weeding and planting for Holland Area
Beautiful and Lincoln Elementary School.
This year's program ran on Saturday, Sept. 1, with
more than 300 students working at 24 sites. In addition to
Community Kitchen, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater
Holland, and Holland Area Beautiful, the organizations with
which students volunteered also included the American Red
Cross, Black River School, DeGraaf Nature Center, Freedom
Village, Habitat for Humanity, Holland Township Recreation
and Maplewood School, among others. Projects ranged from
stuffing newsletters, to cleaning stoves, to painting
playground equipment, to building a home, to planting trees
and weeding.
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