PITTSBURG, Kan. —
For Betty Ward and her husband, Earl, having extra help around the house and yard makes a big difference.
“When you’re older and you don’t have a big income, you have to find other ways (of getting things done),” Betty Ward said.
The Wards, who live on Twin Oaks Drive near the campus of Pittsburg State University, were given a helping hand by about a half-dozen members of the Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority on Saturday, as part of The Big Event. The event is an annual community service day in which students volunteer to help out with cleanup, yardwork and maintenance at homes and businesses in the Pittsburg and Frontenac areas.
More than 700 PSU students took to the streets Saturday, making turnout for this year’s Big Event the largest in its nine-year history, according to Emily Smith, Big Event director.
“This is the biggest it’s ever been,” Smith said. “The biggest thing I want to accomplish is for our students and the surrounding area to have a better relationship.”
The students also teamed up with Take Charge Pittsburg, an organization working to help the city win a $100,000 energy efficiency grant through the state of Kansas. Students took compact fluorescent light bulbs to their home work sites and obtained data on energy efficiency improvements to homes. That data will be used in determining whether Pittsburg or three other communities in Southeast Kansas will receive the grant.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of Monday’s Joplin Globe or register for our E-Edition at joplinglobe.com.
Local News
Related Photos
-
Victoria McKinnon, a freshman at Pittsburg State University, paints playground equipment at Kiwanis Park on Saturday afternoon as part of The Big Event. The annual student community service day provides opportunities for volunteers to help with cleanup, yardwork and maintenance at homes and businesses in Pittsburg and Frontenac. Globe/Roger Nomer
Discussion
Big Event brings record number of students into service
- Local News
-
-
Families, friends invited to honor veterans with flags this weekend
Small lengths of plastic pipe have been installed behind the headstones of veterans graves in Joplin cemeteries so that every veteran will have a flag on Memorial Day.
-
Events, activities planned to honor veterans Monday
No ceremonies are planned at Joplin cemeteries this year or at Mount Hope Cemetery in Webb City, but a number of other events are scheduled in cities around the region.
-
Oklahoma gets far more than its share of disasters
Many states get hit frequently with tornadoes and other natural catastrophes, but Oklahoma is Disaster Central.
-
Sheriff’s funds to pay for two building projects
Jasper County’s general fund budget may pay some initial costs for renovating and constructing two county buildings, but the final bill for the projects will come from law enforcement sales tax funds.
-
Joplin Board of Education to decide fate of East Middle School teacher
After hearing nearly 10 hours of testimony from more than a dozen witnesses and accepting more than 45 exhibits into evidence, members of the Joplin Board of Education voted to move behind closed doors Thursday night to decide whether Randy Turner, a communication arts teacher at East Middle School, will continue to teach.
-
Memorial Day travelers bemoan high gas prices
Norm Hayward and his wife, Claudia, have a couple of things going for them as they continue their increasingly expensive motor home trip around parts of the United States. For starters, the Phoenix, Ariz., couple are saving on hotel costs.
-
Cunningham Park vandalism estimated at $4,000
Vandals caused an estimated $4,000 worth of damage in Cunningham Park, draining the pool in the aquatic center of about 200,000 gallons of water and throwing some large landscaping rocks into the reflecting pond.
-
No charges to be filed in Joplin shooting case
The nonfatal shooting of a 25-year-old man at a Joplin residence on May 13 has been deemed justified by authorities. Jacob B. Boykin, 21, of Joplin, shot Justin S. Johnson, 25, of Carterville, once in the chest with a small-caliber handgun at 5260 E. Sunny Acres Lane.
-
Joplin team drove through storm to get to Moore
It was a long drive in the middle of a severe thunderstorm that had earlier produced a massive tornado in Moore, Okla. With the two-year anniversary of Joplin’s deadly twister approaching on Wednesday, a team of 14 Joplin emergency workers was ready to risk the trip in order to get help to a hurting Moore.
-
Mike Pound: DVD smells like pizza; how great is that?
Just when I think the rest of the world is passing us by, this great country does something that renews my faith in innovation. It does something that renews my faith in that can-do spirit that led Charles Lindbergh to fly nonstop across the Atlantic, thus leading to the invention of the airplane bathroom.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Families, friends invited to honor veterans with flags this weekend
