Georgia Perimeter College Newsroom

Georgia Perimeter students Ashley Aaron, left, and Nikki Whitley help plant a fall garden at the Atlanta Veteran’s Farmers Market. (photo by Leita Cowart)

GPC students join residents of Mountain View Personal Care Home for a game of bingo.

College service day commemorates 9/11

About 70 Georgia Perimeter College students, faculty and staff became “service superheroes” when they volunteered to better their communities in observance of the National Day of Remembrance/Day of Service marking the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedies.

Sporting blue t-shirts emblazoned with the saying, “This is What a Service Superhero Looks Like,” the volunteers turned out for a myriad of projects on Friday, Sept. 12, and Saturday, Sept. 13.

Some played bingo with residents of Mountain View Personal Care Home, while others got their hands dirty clearing brush at Stone Mountain Park and the Blue Heron Preserve and planting vegetable gardens at the Atlanta Veteran’s Farmers Market. Still others students made the trek to the Special Equestrian facility in Alpharetta to clean horse stalls and assist riders.

 “Judging by their laughter—and written responses—everyone had a great time,” said Shellie Welch, a Clarkston Campus humanities professor who brought her students to Stone Mountain Park. Volunteers trimmed shrubs and trees and removed invasive and non-indigenous plants from the Grist Mill area of the park. “Students felt so good about their accomplishments that many of them have asked when the next opportunity for a similar endeavor will be,” Welch said.

The college’s next day of service will be “Make a Difference Day” on Friday, Oct. 24.