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This public service workday is a required part of Freshman Orientation at HBU. The school believes hands-on community service work teaches students that they can make a difference in their communities. City of Galveston spokeswoman Alicia Cahill says so many students are coming to the island Saturday they divided them into three teams to do three projects. One team will pick up trash on the beaches.
“Secondly, they’re going to be at one of our fairly well used parks. We have a wooden park that was built, Schrieber Park, and it’s out toward the west end, it’s near our baseball fields and it’s time for it to be resealed. So the students are going to go ahead and reseal all the wooden pieces to the park.”
The third group will spend the day repainting the fence around the old City Cemetery on Broadway. Cahill says the student volunteers are saving Galveston taxpayers a lot of money.
“The students are almost giving us a full employee’s time for a year. The projects that they will complete would have taken a city staff person a year to complete.”
Cahill says this is the first time HBU has chosen Galveston for its public service project, and they’re hoping it won’t be the last time. She says they hope it can become an annual tradition.
Jim Bell, KUHF, Houston Public Radio News.