Every semester, Averett students team up with students from Danville Community College and Piedmont Community College in a variety of community service projects in the Danville community. This semester’s event was Monday, April 11.

Averett’s art students partnered with the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA) and the City of Danville to promote water quality through art. A total of three storm drains were painted to raise awareness of what is thrown down the drains that lead to the Dan River. This project is serving as a pilot, as DRBA and the City of Danville hope to expand this project to the rest of the city and possibly start an “Adopt-A-Drain” program.

A second project students worked on was making more T-shirt blankets for Haven, Danville’s local domestic violence shelter. This project was a continuation of a project from the MLK Day of Service.

And finally, students partnered with Danville Parks & Recreation to host Play to Engage, a fun play day for children in afterschool programs. Activities included soccer, basketball, tug-of-war, hula hoop and more. In addition, there were rescue and police vehicles for the children to explore. Parents were also invited to this event, as the DCC Teach Club hosted a Community Resource Fair for parents of young children from 4-6 p.m.

As part of the Play to Engage activities, Averett recognized those volunteers who have participated in the Teach It Forward! Challenge from February 8 to April 8. The winning team was Team Arsenal with more than 90 hours of tutoring and in second place was Team Ohana with more than 70 hours of tutoring. Over the past two months, nine different teams have volunteered at eight different sites including the Danville and Chatham Boys and Girls clubs, Cardinal Village, Cedar Terrace and several church-based tutorial programs. In all, more than 620 hours of tutoring were completed.

To see pictures from the day’s activities, click here.