The 2012 Athens Global Youth Service Day was certainly a success! We had over 1,400 youth volunteers who in just three short days contributed over 5,700 hours of service to the Athens community! An effort of this magnitude simply cannot be accomplished by a single organization. HandsOn NEGA is very grateful for its partnerships with the Clarke County School District, Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful, the University of Georgia, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the members of the Athens Community Mentor Collaborative and the dozens of local nonprofit and government agencies that were willing to host and make accommodations for our young volunteers. We are also thankful to Youth Service America and the State Farm Youth Advisory Board because without these two excellent leaders in youth empowerment and service we would not have been able to fund all of these wonderful projects.
Below I’ve included a few pictures from the weekend’s events. From the photos you can see how these youth influenced and impacted the world around them. But you can also see how these projects impacted the youth as well. They were given a chance to make a difference, a chance to have input about social change, a chance to exercise leadership and responsibility, and a chance to serve. Thank you to everyone who was a part of this wonderful event!
Star Quality Girls decorated and filled gorgeous flower pots …
… and delivered them to residents of Lanier Gardens/Talmage Terrace!
Residents of Park on West Broad built a flower garden on the property to encourage young residents to take care of their environment!
Mentors and Mentees of the Clarke County Mentor Program also decorated and filled flower pots. These were delivered to Morningside Assisted Living Facility.
Over 580 CCSD students served as Litter Gitters, picking up trash around our county!
620 students at Coile Middle School wrote letters of support during GYSD. An additional 60 students completed other service projects and displayed their work for community adults to see!
Jay, one of our YLP participants, gathered a group of students to raise awareness and support for undocumented students in Clarke County through the use of film and other art mediums.