Greater Northwest Members Clean Up, Beautify Historic Site
Phi Theta Kappa members attending the recent Greater Northwest Regional
Convention had an opportunity to perform community service by conducting
cleanup and beautification projects at Fort Vancouver, a national park
located near Clark College, which hosted the event.
Phi Theta
Kappa's International
Service Program is Operation Green: Improving Our Communities,
a partnership with Keep
America Beautiful.
"About a hundred top-flight students
will dirty their hands when they converge on Clark College this weekend,"
was how a local newspaper described the cleanup. "The smart guests will
mingle and pass out awards. They'll elect new officers, debate organizational
changes and tend to business affairs. But they'll also roll up sleeves -
to help make historic Fort Vancouver a little better place."
Fort
Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River
that served as the area headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company. A full-scale
replica of the fort and internal buildings are now open to the public.
Greater
Northwest Phi Theta Kappa members worked in the gardens, and chopped and
stacked wood for the fort's reconstructed bakehouse, kitchen and blacksmith
shop.
Clark College advisor Deena Bisig estimated that the
100 attendees volunteered approximately 200 hours of community service.
This was the first time the Clark College chapter has hosted the regional
meeting.
Read newspaper coverage of the cleanup in the online
edition of The
Columbian.
