Service projects, whether big or small, can make noticeable differences in a community.
Local youth-centered service organization Camp Fire has long encouraged its members to clean up Arkansas Avenue, the street in El Dorado where their main office is located.
Recently, however, Camp Fire decided to make it official by adopting the street.
Rather than have a single club or age group adopt the street, the entire organization took on the responsibility, and now allows clubs to sign up for clean-up duty on a monthly basis.
According to Camp Fire’s website, its clubs are “small groups of youth in Kindergarten through high school who meet with trained adult volunteer club leaders to develop leadership skills, self-esteem and resilience.”
The clubs are divided by age group, ranging from “Starflight,” which is made up of Kindergarteners through second graders to “Horizon,” which consists of high school students.
El Dorado Camp Fire administrative assistant Stephanie Pepper said that although all clubs can participate, the younger members, in particular, have taken to the project.
“Usually the younger people like to come clean up, since the older kids are concentrating on other service projects,” Pepper said.
Each club will be able to pick a month to keep the street clean, allowing each age group to eventually get in on the action.
“We’ve always done [the clean-up], but we decided to go ahead and adopt it… I think it’s a project they enjoy doing because they can instantly see progress, see what they’ve done and see how it helps community,” Pepper said.
The project is one, Pepper said, that gets at the heart of Camp Fire’s mission.
“That is our mission at Camp Fire - to teach [the children] about service and helping the community. A lot of the time we do food fundraisers, drives, little things like that to… teach kids about being friendly to the environment and about how to give back and take care of what we do have,” Pepper said.
As part of the process of adopting the street through Keep Arkansas Beautiful and local affiliate Keep El Dorado Beautiful, Camp Fire is supplied with high-visibility vests, gloves and trash bags.
Of course, with summer now in full swing, the street-clean up project is just one of many Camp Fire’s members are now involved with.
The organization’s summer day camp is set to begin next week; the camp for younger children will be ongoing from June 21 to 23 and the camp for older kids will take place from June 28-30.