UA Honors College Students Arrive Early for Service-Learning, Storm Recovery Projects

Editor’s Note: A Media Availability Day will be held Thursday, Aug. 18, with Alabama Action at Holt Elementary (site of the former Lloyd Wood Middle School, 2300 26th Ave., Northport 35476) and Collins-Riverside Middle School (1400 3rd St., Northport 35476) from 9 a.m.-1 p.m., and Outdoor Action at Hurricane Creek from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Media are invited to visit both programs.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — More than 200 University of Alabama Honors College students will arrive here a week early to help Tuscaloosa storm recovery efforts by taking part in the service-learning projects Alabama Action and Outdoor Action from Sunday, Aug. 14-Friday, Aug. 19.

Some 150 UA honors students will participate in Alabama Action, a program combining service to the community with enriching academic sessions. The 2011 program is the 11th annual Alabama Action project organized and carried out by UA honors students.

The Alabama Action students will work at Collins-Riverside Middle School in numerous renovation projects in the front of the school, hallways, cafeteria, outdoor courtyard, gym, football field, outdoor basketball court and band room.

Added this year as an additional outreach project in response to the recovery efforts following the devastating April 27 tornado, the students will also work at the new, temporary site for Holt Elementary (which was destroyed during the violent storm, and is now temporarily housed at the former Lloyd Wood Middle School in Northport).

At Holt Elementary, the students will work on renovation projects on the front of the school and bus terminal and also do landscaping. The UA students will work in the classroom to mentor the schoolchildren – many displaced by the tornado – in discussions and enrichment activities. Curriculum time with the students at Holt will include art therapy to give them an outlet to express themselves.

The Alabama Action students will be working at both schools Monday, Aug. 15-Friday, Aug. 19 from approximately 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. each day.

While the Alabama Action students are busy in a school setting, another group of honors students will spend the week in the college’s Outdoor Action service-learning program. Outdoor Action focuses on environmental issues and allows students to make a contribution through an environmental service project.

The Outdoor Action students will participate in a two-day Hurricane Creek clean-up project and a Perry Lakes Park service project.

Hurricane Creek was severely impacted by the April 27 tornado, and the Outdoor Action students will work to restore the natural flow of the stream that is now blocked by man-made debris deposited there by the storm. This will serve one of the central goals of the program, to demonstrate the correlation between biology, geography and environmental science with real conditions in the local environment.

Also at Perry Lakes Park, located 50 miles from the UA campus near Marion, some 40 honors freshmen and nine student leaders will work to complete a hiking path that will connect several areas of the park in a continuous loop trail for the first time. This is the fourth year of focused effort by Outdoor Action students in Perry Lakes Park.

Outdoor Action activities are supported by the Honors College, the Alabama Museum of Natural History and UA Outdoor Recreation.