When a parent asks their child to do some landscaping around the house, the typical answer would be a groan. But for 27 Washington and Lee students, they welcome the backbreaking labor because it's for a good cause.
They are participants in a Pre-Orientation program aimed at teaching students the value of community service, making lifelong friends, and learning about the struggles of life below the poverty line.
This experience is meaningful for all of the students. Seven of those students are on their second, third, or even fourth community service trip. But this project is all about the freshman. 20 of them are learning invaluable lessons before they even set foot in a Washington and Lee classroom.
"I think there's definitely uncomfortable situations where you don't really know how to act or respond to things. So just learning to be open to that and talking to the participants and where they're coming from," said trip organizer Michael Twining.
Twining will be a senior this fall and this was his fourth and final trip down to Roanoke to do projects like this. He says hundreds of students apply each year to participate in these projects and they send out community service crews all across the state.
While their living accommodations aren't ideal, they're sleeping in a church gymnasium, all the students we spoke with today tell us it's well worth it,
"It's hard to describe I guess. It just feels really good to help out someone you know that really needs help," said sophomore Will McLendon.
Freshman Cara Scott told us she hadn't done community service that was as hard hitting as what she did today, "it's an other-worldly experience," Scott said.
The beneficiaries of the hard work of this particular group are various organizations associated with TAP, Total Action Against Poverty. Some volunteers dispersed to a Head Start in Roanoke and others went to the Transitional Living House.
We spoke with some of the heads of those organizations and they say this program, which has been in effect for 10 years is more than welcome.
