Sunnyside facelift
Volunteers spruce up neighborhood as part of annual event
BY EVELYN RYAN The Dominion Post
Sunnyside is looking a little fresher and cleaner today, courtesy of Sunday’s efforts by WVU students, parents and other volunteers as part of Morgantown Makeover 2009. Armed with cans of paint and brushes, volunteers obliterated graffiti on trash Dumpsters and touched up scratches, giving them a fresh look. Other volunteers patrolled the streets with trash bags, collecting paper and other debris from along the curbs and grass lines. Some tried their hand at landscaping. WVU student body president Jason Zuccari lead a crew to plant mums on a hillside at Campus Drive and Beechurst Avenue. For three hours, the volunteers labored to give student-centered Sunnyside a clean face for fall. This is the third year for the makeover program. This year, it coincides with WVU’s annual Fall Family Weekend, allowing visiting parents a chance to put their stamp on their child’s future alma mater. This year’s event is a coordinated effort between the Mountaineer Parents Club, Sunnyside Up, WVU Center for Civic Engagement, Leadership Studies Student Association (LSSA) and the Student Government Association (SGA). “Makeover Morgantown has been a great opportunity for SGA, LSSA, the Mountaineer Parents Club and Center for Civic Engagement to join in this common project for the betterment of the Sunnyside Community. With any community service, it is important for students to give back to this community that has been so vital in our Morgantown history and to preserve what it will be in the future,” said Whitney Rae Peters, student body vice president. Makeover Morgantown began as a student-led initiative, sponsored by WVU’s SGA and LSSA. Kimberly Colebank, director of WVU’s Center for Civic Engagement, called the collaboration a chance “to make a real tangible difference.” In the past, volunteers have participated in street clean-ups, trash removals, rail-trail beautification, graffiti removal and numerous community revitalization projects. Bob Gay/The Dominion Post A group of volunteers pick up trash alongside University Avenue in Sunnyside during the Morgantown Makeover 2009 work session.
Bob Gay/The Dominion Post WVU freshman Kat Weimer (right) holds a tray of paint while her father Andy paints over the graffiti on a trash Dumpster on Grant Avenue during the Morgantown Makeover 2009 cleanup project Sunday morning.
