The Freshman Leadership Program will host a service project today called the Boys & Girls Club Spring Festival from 2:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Freshmen Leadership Program Coordinator Kalyn Cavazos said this project is unique from previous ones because of the involvement and size.
“The Freshman Leadership Program has hosted various service projects before,” Cavazos said. “However, this particular event is the first one of its kind to be hosted in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Club. The Spring Festival Service Project is a great opportunity for the Freshman Leadership Program to get exposure as a service-oriented volunteer group and it’s a great way for our program facilitators to instill the hands-on learning approach of civic engagement.”
Student Chair of the project, Animal Science freshmen Adrianna Loftin said she is amazed by the success of the program.
“This year’s leaders went above and beyond any other freshman leader class and decided to put on a festival for the local Boys & Girls club,” Loftin said. “This event is the first service project of this size and involvement and we hope to continue it in years to come.”
Throughout the fall, mentors and advisors chose the event the students will do. In the spring semester the freshmen are allowed to choose their own program.
“Whenever they gave it to us to plan we tried to shoot for the stars,” Marketing freshman Rachel Cascio said.
The FLP reached out and asked other organizations across the university to help out at the festival. 29 organizations will join the FLP to put together the event.
“Our goal was at least 10 organizations and we surpassed our goal, so we are pretty excited,” Cascio said. “Not only are there a lot of organizations, but there are a lot of Greek life and sports teams involved.”
The FLP wanted to do the event with Boys & Girls Club as a way to give back to the local community.
“We were looking for a place in Huntsville where we could do something for the kids,” Loftin said. “Someone had mentioned the Boys & Girls Club and we decided that was a great thing to do.”
Some of the activities that the festival include are soccer, bowling, football drills, kickball, fishing games, bean bag tosses, bounce houses and face painting.
“We are really excited,” Cascio said. “There are about 150 kids who go to the Boys & Girls Club regularly. We are hoping for a good turnout. The more the merrier.”
There is expected to be 200 student volunteers from the 29 organizations.
“The freshman leaders have put in a lot of hours for this event,” Cavazos said. “We’re so excited at the support we have received from other organizations.”
The Boys & Girls Club of Walker County is located at 300 Martin Luther King Blvd. Huntsville, TX 77320. The Spring festival starts at 2:30 p.m.