Wildlife Photograph

North by Northwestern

Saturday April 05, 2008
Students spend spring break volunteering at Ijams

This March we were visited by a group of students from Northwestern University during their spring break. The campus is located in Evanston, Illinois. The group came to Ijams to volunteer for the week on an alternative spring break program. The ASB program is student run and they select service learning  organizations around the country to volunteer at.

The Concord Methodist Church in Farragut generously provided living quarters and a kitchen  for the 12 students. They even welcomed them at several suppers during the week.

While at Ijams Nature Center the group assisted in trail maintenance, greenhouse construction, and exotic plant control projects.  Their cheerful attitude and willingness to help was a great benefit to the park.

The students also had the opportunity to learn about our region. We showed them around the new park addition.  One day they went to the Blue Plate Special lunchtime concert at the WDVX radio studio and then visited Market Square. On their last day they visited Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

 

- By Ed Yost

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