MARIETTA - Marietta College students and staff won't be in class Saturday, but that doesn't mean they won't be working.
More than 250 students, faculty members and college employees, along with community members, will tackle 15 projects throughout Marietta and Parkersburg as part of the college's annual Community Service Day from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
"It's a really good project, not just to get the students to go out in the community but for the community to teach the students" about different ways to help locally, said Dan Hartman, a junior from Cincinnati and one of three student coordinators for the day.
Marietta Councilman Roger Kalter, D-1st Ward, is among the community members working with the students. He's got four projects lined up, including a massive cleanup of property between Greene Street, Grandview Avenue and Hart and Plum streets.
"Besides being dozens and dozens of tires that have been dumped off Grandview down on the property, there's a broken television, an aquarium ... a suitcase, hundreds of plates, old eight-track tapes and stuff we're going to be cleaning up Saturday," he said.
Some projects will take place with partners from years past, including the Mid-Ohio Valley Fellowship Home, Marietta Family YMCA and the Washington County Harvest of Hope community garden. Others will be at new venues, like the House of Hope, a program aimed at providing fellowship and activities for Washington County residents diagnosed with mental illness.
"We're going to be helping to construct their memory walkway" to honor members who have passed away, said Amanda Dever, AmeriCorps Vista and coordinator in the college's Office of Civic Engagement.
Unlike Make a Difference Day in the fall, groups won't be assigned to specific projects but will be divided among various sites.
"It's really going to be a mix-up this year," Dever said.
