BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — Bloomsburg University students were out on the town for a day full of community service, all set up by the university's community government association.
"So this is the big event; we hold it at Bloomburg every year. This is our fifteenth year doing it. We have over a thousand student volunteers come, and basically, what happens is we send out a whole bunch of mail to town residents and ask them, hey, do you need yard work done? Raking leaves? Small things that we can have students basically give back to the community," said Matthew Yurkunas, President of the Community Government Association.
Every year, for the big event, Bloomsburg University students go out into the community to complete almost 200 community service jobs.
"So we had a house on 4th street, and the men and women club soccer, we raked a bunch of leaves pretty much like it was just a lot of leaves. We probably filled like 25 bags of garbage," said Sophia Boyle, Bloomsburg University Junior.
The act, as small as it may seem, really touched resident's hearts.
"This was wonderful. I've been wanting to get the front yard done for years, and I just haven't been able to do it, and this program, whatever they call it at the school, is absolutely fantastic," said Sharon Babbyoung, Bloomsburg resident.
University students were more than happy to clean up Sharon's yard, among other things.
"The lady before, she said it's been really hard to keep up with her house, um, so it was just really nice to have us come and help and get it all ready for spring and everything," said Kylee Schultz, Bloomsburg University Junior.
Some residents even returned the kind gesture.
"A man who had his wife recently passed, so like a lot of her old jewelry he wanted to give to us as like a thank you, so that was like really sentimental for us," said Ashleigh Cake, Vice President of Community Government Association (CGA).
Many students expressed it means a lot for them to be able to do this for the community, and they're definitely planning to be a part of the big event next year.