Chicago students return for second year to spruce up town
Published: September 6, 2003
Graduate students and undergrads from Chicago’s Northwestern University pitched in for the second time recently, travelling to Anaconda for a combination of work and play in a
get-aquainted community service project.
Graduate student Marnie Sturgeon said the group will spend the week weeding and grooming at the smelter stack interpretive site at the east edge of town and working on painting projects at Hearthstone, Discovery House and the Chamber of Commerce Visitor’s Center, where a 1920’s passenger train car is badly in need of attention.
Sturgeon said locals may remember the group from last year, when they painted the historical depot that is home to A-1 Building Materials.
“That’s us; we’re the painting fools,” Sturgeon said during an interview on the visitor’s center lawn Wednesday. Sturgeon explained that the visit is connected to the school’s community service program that mixes undergraduates with graduate students for a blend of recreation and service-related work.
Last year, Dominic Ivankovich was among the participants, working as a second year business graduate student, according to his sister, Jennifer Anderson. He has since accepted a position in Seattle.
Anderson said the students returned for a second volunteer stint because they believed they made a difference in Anaconda.
“They felt it was valuable to our community and decided to come back again,” she said.
While they’re in the area, students will hike in the Pintler Wilderness Area, enjoy whitewater rafting on the Gallatin River, hunt sapphires and take in local color during a pub crawl.
Edith Franzen, director of the Anaconda Chamber of Commerce, said the students’ help is invaluable.
“It’s beautiful,” she said of the paint job on the passenger train displayed at the downtown visitor’s center. “There’s no way we could have afforded to do what they did. They did a fantastic job.”
Franzen said it’s too soon to tell if the youths will choose to return for a third year.
“We won’t know until next year,” she said.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: