Three Moundridge High School girls clean the front window of The Ledger during Friday’s annual work day, during which the high school’s student body and faculty goes out into the community and helps tidy things up.
Friday local high school students did their part to beautify Moundridge, Kan.
As part of an annual event known as “Work Day,” nearly 150 students, along with approximately 20 faculty and staff members, hit the streets with brooms, trash bags and rags to help clean the town.
Some students swept the sidewalks while others washed windows and picked up trash.
The students did a good job, and they even dealt with the dead plants in the two pots in front of my newspaper office.
I heard several compliments around town about their work, but I also heard a couple funny stories.
One person told me they saw a girl using a broom, but she wasn’t very into the work. Apparently she would make a few lame sweeps of the broom, stop, look around for a while, and then make a few more strokes with the cleaning tool.
Another person told me they saw students picking up trash along the roadway and thought those young adults were in trouble. I explained what was going on, but it got me thinking.
I bet it did look like a chain gang of sorts. At least they weren’t all wearing blue shirts and red hats like at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson. Then people would have had some cause for concern.
The idea behind the “Work Day” is great, though. It gets the younger people involved in the community, and every town needs its youth to become involved. Otherwise the community won’t be able to retain the younger members, which are people small towns need to maintain and grow the community.
The few students I spoke with seemed to enjoy the event. Maybe it was getting to be out of school for a day, or maybe they genuinely enjoyed helping make Moundridge sparkle.
Either way, I’m glad they did it, and I think other towns should take note and do something similar to involve the high school students and the rest of the community in a unifying project.
It is clearly a win-win situation for everyone, and the beauty of it is the high school students seem to work for donuts.
Maybe next year I can sweeten the deal by offering cinnamon rolls if a few of the students come clean my house and mow the lawn.
