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The event, Pitt Project included 102 volunteers working on 21 different jobs around the Pittsburg area. The event started on Nov. 13 after being rescheduled from the original date of Oct. 23 due to weather issues.
“We had 21 projects around town. Mostly raking leaves and cleaning gardens and cleaning gutters. One group did some painting, another group cleaned up a brick pile someone had. So basically anything that people need is within our scope of abilities,” said Craig Fuchs, director of the Honors College. “We typically have anywhere from 21-25 projects, so it was a pretty normal year for us.”
The Honors College did not charge for the jobs that they complete and found the jobs in a variety of different ways.
“We do some marketing through the local churches because we know the elderly people attend and we also send a Mr. Bulk-E to the entire campus so we can pick up a lot of jobs just from faculty and staff who may have some older parents and need some help,” Fuchs said.
The freshman class does all of the organizing for the event, from creating teams to gathering supplies to complete the jobs.
“So, it’s a freshman class project within the Honors College. They are the ones who organize everything. So, it provides an opportunity for leadership within that cohort. So we have five teams, a recruitment team, that recruit the workers. A marketing team that finds the jobs. We have a donations team that obviously gets trash bags, rakes, and those things donated,” Fuchs said. “We have a pick-up crew and team that organizes the end of the project, and(the) inspection (team that) goes to the sights and decides what needs to be done and what supplies are needed.”
Although the Honors College organizes the event, anyone can volunteer to help with the jobs.
“We market it to our students first, then we go to the CAC, Gorilla Engage, sororities, fraternities, we email all the freshmen in gorilla gateway, and we use the dorm people to send information to everyone who lives in the dorms. So that’s a pretty far-reaching net, so hopefully, we get the majority of students on campus in some way through that process,” Fuchs said.
The overall end goal for the Pitt Project is to help those in the community.
“The community really supports Pitt state, so it only makes sense to give back where we can. They do so much for us, they come to the sporting events, and they make sure we feel at home so it’s only natural to give back,” said senior in biology, Sam Eddington.
The project gives a chance for the freshman class to develop leadership and teamwork skills as well.
“We hope that it continues on, it’s a great way for that freshman class to volunteer and get together and learn to work as a team. I don’t know if we can do many more jobs, 20-25 is pretty much what we can handle, given the number of students who sign up to work the jobs. We would love to be able to do more, but 20 jobs and 100 kids that’s four or five people on a job and that’s all we can handle,” Fuchs said.