Patrick Platt, right, glances over at his son, Chase, 5, as he helps scrape old paint on the bus shelter at Southwestern Oregon Community College on Saturday morning. The father and son joined Sam Terzo, left; and John Gazley, center, working on the shelter during a morning of sprucing up the Coos Bay campus grounds. Platt is an admissions advisor at the college Terzo is a custodian and Gazley is a student working on a two-year degree. The younger Platt is a kindergarten student and not enrolled at Southwestern - at least not yet. - World Photo by Lou Sennick

About 15 people ignored the threat of continued rain and came to the Southwestern Oregon Community College Saturday morning to clean up the campus grounds.

But sunshine prevailed, and members of the environmentally conscious group, composed of students and faculty, carried around trash grabbers and black trashbags to their appointed areas.

“We care about our campus — we want to see it look nice,” said area director of student housing, Jeremy David Jones.

He and Kyle Croy, resident director of student housing, had been assigned the front parking lot.

“People can be rough on the campus,” Jones said. “Stuff gets on the outside. You have to take care of that.”

Jones and Croy were part of the group that met at 9 a.m. to take part in the community college’s first Service Saturday, organized by service learning coordinator Julia Rose. A graduate of Humboldt State University, Rose moved from Eureka, Calif., in December, to assume the position, as part of AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America.

Rose said she is responsible for civic engagements and service learning activities on the campus.

“We’ve done campus cleanups before, but this is the rollout of other future Service Saturdays that will be held monthly,” Rose said.

Student ambassadors, student recruiters, and members of Residence Life and the Service Learning Advisory Team, as well as members of the community, were invited to be a part of the event, which ended at 1 p.m. in a barbecue in the campus’ Lighthouse Depot, a student eating facility.

The next Service Saturday on April 5 will be another college cleanup day, but after that, the once-a-month activities will focus on helping out youth organizations, parks and assisting the elderly, according to Rose.

“My goal for Service Saturday is to give students an opportunity to get involved in the community,” Rose said. “It’s a guaranteed day to take part in a variety of community projects. It’s not something they have to do every month, but something we encourage.”

Rose said she had hoped for a larger turnout, but knew it was due to the stormy overnight weather.

“I wish more people had faith, but anybody willing to help and come out, I admire,” she said.

The participants were supposed to work for an hour and a half before reporting back to Rose for their next assignments.

In the back parking lot, Southwestern Oregon Community College President Dr. Judith Hansen and two students from Hong Kong, Pico Lam and Summer Li, were picking up trash.

“It stopped raining just for us,” Hansen said, just as the sun’s rays came out. “This is wonderful.”

Lam said she and Li are attending the college for two years.

“It’s good service for the school.” Lam said.

Li, a student ambassador, who helps recruit students to the college, already knew what their next task would be.

“We’re going to power-wash the bus stop and maybe do some planting,” Li said.

Hansen said the ambassadors are more than just a link with future students, “but with the community. It’s sort of like leading by doing.”

Southwestern’s Director of Enrollment Management, Tom Nicholls; and student John Gazley, were busy brushing old paint off a bus stop bench, under the eaves of a building.

“We got it out of the weather a little bit to clean it off here,” Nicholls said.

Gazley, a 43-year-old who went back to school to get his college education, moved to a different job later, scraping paint off a bus stop to prepare it for repainting.

Gazley explained that he had been able to go back to college literally “tuition-free.”

“I took a class here that helped me in pursuing scholarships and grants.” he said.

After three years, Gazley is graduating in the spring with a general associate arts Oregon transfer degree, and he plans to continue his education at an Oregon university.

“This place has treated me real well,” Gazley said. “I decided to come out here and give something back.”

For more information on Service Saturdays, those interested can call Julia Rose at 888-7311 or e-mail jrose@socc.edu.