380 GRADUATING SIXTH-GRADERS ELECT TO ‘GIVE BACK’ THROUGH SERVICE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 23, 2007
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-8989-2919

GRADUATING SIXTH-GRADERS ELECT TO ‘GIVE BACK’ THROUGH SERVICE
Fifty Campus School Students Dedicate Two Days to MTSU Groundskeeping

(MURFREESBORO, Tenn.)—Students in two sixth-grade classes at the Homer Pittard Campus School recently decided to give back to MTSU by helping perform needed groundskeeping on the university’s campus.
On May 21-22, the participating sixth-graders reported for duty to Grady “Larry” Sizemore, greenhouse manager for grounds services on campus. A 32-year member of MTSU’s staff, Sizemore is in charge of all university landscaping.
Dr. Tracey Ring, professor of elementary and special education, said she was contacted by Campus School teachers LeAnn Hays and Shields Templeton when they learned that their graduating sixth-grade classes wanted to perform community service for MTSU.
Ring, in turn, said she immediately thought of Sizemore as someone willing to help the 50 children with their self-initiated community project, since he previously worked closely with several teachers at school.
Regarding the children’s community service, Sizemore said, “We (had) the students doing different things on different days, and all went well.”
The first class of sixth-graders reported for duty May 21 and spent most of their school day performing tasks that needed to take place so that the second group of children could complete their planned work May 22, Ring said.
“The first helped get a lot of leaves that fell during the recent frost,” Sizemore explained. “So we (worked) on getting the nursery cleaned up in that area the best we could so the next group of kids could plant some native grasses,
some switch grasses such as North Wind and Heavy Metal, around the rain
garden.”
Hays said that although some of her previous classes also had conducted community service, this particular group of students had developed an especially close tie with the university and conceived the on-campus service idea as a way to say “thank you” for all the help MTSU had provided for them during the past several years.
“This is a part of their graduation celebration to give back to the university,” said Hays, who noted that the children performed the service during their graduation week.
For more information about the K-6 school, which is a public elementary jointly operated by MTSU and the Rutherford County School System as well as the laboratory school for students in the teacher education programs of the Department of Elementary and Special Education, please visit its Web site at http://www.hpc.rcs.k12.tn.us/index.htm.

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•ATTENTION, MEDIA—To interview participating sixth-graders, teachers or MTSU’s Sizemore about this project, please contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at lrollins@mtsu.edu or 615-898-2919. A jpeg of students performing the community service is available for editorial use upon request.