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Usually the largest cleaning project college students face is the massive pile of junk that covers their dorm room floor. Saturday, April 4, 180 Tech students volunteered to take on an even bigger endeavor. They cleaned out an apartment complex (and an adjacent lot) that had been abandoned for fifteen years. The complex is going to be turned into a community center and the lot will become athletic facilities. The English Avenue project was the inaugural event for an annual spring service project sponsored by Georgia Tech's campus ministries.
This service project was sponsored by the Asian Christian Fellowship, the Baptist Student Union, Campus Crusade for Christ, Campus Christian Fellowship, the Episcopal Center, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, the Lutheran Center, the Wesley Foundation, Westminster Christian Fellowship, and the YMCA. It was an effort by the campus ministries to join forces and give students a chance to think of others in the community. The Project also gave the students involved in the various campus ministries to get to know each other better.
Besides tearing out the old walls and door/window frames, the student volunteers picked up 15 years worth of bottles, paper, and other trash. Their efforts aided the work of Urban Ministries and the English Avenue Merchant's Association, who are planning the remodeling project. The apartment complex will become a community center, with buildings for drug rehabilitation, counseling for unwed mothers, and housing for urban missionaries. The adjacent empty lot will become an athletic field, complete with basketball and tennis courts.
"It was really encouraging to see the Christians on campus come together to show God's love to the community," said Chris Raffield, president of the Baptist Student Union.
Besides showing the community that campus ministries are not about "competing with each other," it showed the students involved just how much need was present in the community.
Bobby Baptist, a junior AE, said that he "never realized that there was so much need right down the street" and that "it was neat to see what we can do for the community."
There's still a lot of work to be done on the English Avenue project. If any other groups are interested in helping out, they can contact Hands on Atlanta at (404) 872-2252.