Students, volunteers prepare for Red Pride Service Day

Each year, as many notice, Newton High School students take an afternoon to participate in a variety of service projects that better the community.

Newton High School, Berg Middle School and community volunteers will host the sixth annual Red Pride Service Day beginning at 1 p.m. May 6 throughout Newton.

“It started as a way for us to promote positive student behavior and let kids shine in a way that wasn’t academic, and let teachers interact with students and get students to interact with other students and adults,” RPSD organizer Alison Grier said. “It was also a time with the community was pretty depressed with the loss of Maytag, and so it was a way to pick up the community as well and kind of beautify things and make it a better place.”

New this year is the addition of the participation of Berg Middle School students who will be working in the Berg vicinity on service day.

Every student and volunteer receives a Red Pride T-shirt for functionality and as a momento of their united experience. These shirts, along with project materials such as paint, mulch, flowers and cleaning materials are provided through the help of local businesses.

The support and donations that are contributed to the efforts are vital to the service day existence.

“Without the help of local merchants it would be pretty hard to make it happen,” RPSD organizer Omar Gonzalez said.

Organizers choose one mural project for high school students to paint each year, and this year, organizers partnered with fellow service organization St. Nick’s Christmas Club. Students will work with St. Nick’s to paint a designed mural and label the side of a St. Nick’s transportation truck.

Students and staff will participate in a variety of service projects in and around Newton. Some projects include: dog walking at Animal Rescue League; flower beds downtown and around various businesses; a food packaging event; the recycling of computers and home appliances; paint dugouts at Eversman Field; clean, plant trees and paint poles at Maytag Park; and clean, brush and help maintain area roads, bike trails, the Children’s Forest, both interstate exits and in the Iowa Speedway vicinity.

For those interested in donating to service fees, ordering a Get to Know Newton Red Pride Service Day T-shirt, or information on how to volunteer, visit the Red Pride Service Day Facebook page or call Cheryl Salyers at 641-792-2787.

Contact Kate Malott at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or kmalott@newtondailynews.com