Volunteers clean up schools for Global Youth Service Day

Volunteers joined in trash mobs and helped clean up high school campuses in Carson City, Dayton and Douglas County as part of Global Youth Service Day last week.

The service projects encouraged youth and the young at heart – including members of three wards from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with Dayton High School’s National Honor Society and the Trailblazers, a service group – to perform a community service. Dayton’s project took place April 26.

From left, Abbie Miklich, Shelby Thompson and Hailey Drews help clean up Dayton High School on April 26. (Courtesy photo)

“It’s an international effort to encourage youth to volunteer and provide a service in their community,” Laurel Crossman, mother of five and president of the Carson City School District’s Board of Trustees.

At Carson High on Saturday, about 50 youth and parents from Carson’s secondary schools walked the campus’ front lawn, parking lot and athletic fields to pick up cardboard pieces, broken glass shards, pens and other refuse.

The effort helps polish the campus just weeks before graduation.

“I talked to (Superintendent) Feuling about this,” Crossman said. “And he just said with the shortage we’ve had in groundskeepers and custodial staff, and then with the winter we’ve had, so much of the effort was on snow removal and keeping schools open that way. We had winds and the snow and then it was, ‘Look at all this stuff.’ ”

Three of Crossman’s sons, who are 18, 14 and 12 and attend CHS or Carson Middle School, focused around the school’s northern entrance and gradually moved to the bleachers and track and field.

Emma Konze, another CHS sophomore, said she enjoyed assisting the cleanup.

Peter Crossman, 14, said it’s “always good just helping out.”

“We’re able to do what needs to be done,” he said. “We need to clean up. (The school) needs to be clean.”

Katie Leatham, who has four children in the district with two attending CHS with the other two soon to come into it, said it’s important to set an example for others.

“We’re encouraged to be good citizens and help take care of the earth and fellow men,” she said.

Laurel Crossman was pleasantly surprised by at least one find on Carson High’s campus.

“The kids are flossing,” she said smiling. “We found dental floss. They are taking care of their teeth. I didn’t expect to find that on the campus.”