Dixie State Campus to Community Service Project will “Kick It” with Washington City March 25

Dixie State College of Utah students, faculty, and staff are banding together to participate in this spring semester’s Campus to Community service project, which will be held on Wednesday, March 25, at the future home of Washington City’s new sports complex, which is near the Virgin River on 300 East. The project, entitled “Kickin’ It Into High Gear,” is designed to assist Washington City prepare an area earmarked for the complex, which will include a number of new soccer fields and other recreational opportunities for the community.
 
The service project will start at 2:30 p.m., and will finish around 5 p.m. All volunteers, including student clubs, faculty, staff and community members, who wish to drive to the location are encouraged to be there by 2:30 p.m. DSC will also provide transportation as school vans will leave from DSC’s Old Gym parking lot around 2 p.m., and will return around 5:30 p.m.

All volunteers are encouraged to wear old clothes and shoes, and bring a hat, gloves, rakes and shovels, if possible. Refreshments, including sandwiches, chips, cookies and drinks, will be provided at the end of the event.
 
“All Dixie State clubs are required to help, and many of our instructors encourage their students to attend,” said Candace Mesa, DSC’s Faculty Coordinator of Service. “Studies have shown that the team building of service projects promotes retention, so this project is one step in keeping the students we have.”
 
DSC Student Body President Brock Bybee added that Campus to Community service projects are the best way for students to give back to those who support Dixie State College.
 
“It is hard for students to find ways to help out in the community,” Bybee said. “The Campus to Community service project is a great way for students to show appreciation for the St. George area.”
 
The Campus to Community service program was organized at Dixie State College in 2001. Campus to Community is Dixie State’s version of a nationwide trend known as service learning, designed to get college students involved in service and give them opportunities for practical application of textbook learning.
 
DSC’s Campus to Community program consists of one large-scale community service project each semester. Last fall, DSC students, faculty and staff paid a visit to the Tuacahn Amphitheater and Center for the Arts and assisted the staff in its preparation for the winter season.
 
Among the many other service projects DSC has been involved in over the past eight years include planting trees for the new Southern Utah Water Conservation Gardens in St. George, a book drive to benefit literacy in local schools, and assisting with the Confluence Project in Hurricane and LaVerkin.

DSC students have also held four “CANSTOCK” food drives in support of the Dixie Care and Share. Students have also teamed together to remove weeds and debris at the Santa Clara Arboretum, collected money for Washington County School District leveled libraries, planted bushes and shrubs at the Canyons Softball Complex in St. George, and harvested willow stems as part of St. George City’s effort to help re-vegetate area riverbeds in the wake of the flooding of 2005.
 
As always, community members are invited to take part in all Campus to Community projects.