Students to Help Clean Up 5th Street Park

A Fairmont park will soon be a little cleaner thanks to students in two classes at Fairmont State University.

About 50 students in instructor Matt Schmuck's Outdoor Leisure and Introduction to Recreation classes plan to participate in a community clean-up project at Fifth Street Park. Students will pick up garbage at the park from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 28 and 29. Allied Waste Service is donating dumpsters for the clean up this weekend.

"Part of a well rounded education includes the incorporation of good citizenship," said Donna Nuzum, Director of Community Service Learning at FSU. "Volunteering services is a major component of this. Services such as these offered by Mr. Schmuck's students provide the opportunity for community engagement and the realization that one receives much more than is given."

Schmuck, a Fairmont native, graduated from FSU in 1996 with a degree in physical education. One of his personal goals is to develop a nature trail in the valley that runs through Fifth Street Park. Schmuck has been meeting with city planners about the idea, and he hopes that cleaning up the area is the first step toward reaching his goal.

"I used to live beside Fifth Street Park growing up in Fairmont," he said. "It used to be a very nice park with a recreation program in the summer, but it has really just deteriorated. I always thought it had a beautiful green space area and should have a trail. This new trail would provide a ¼ mile exercise loop within the park for everyone to use."

Schmuck hopes to offer a trail development class over the summer at FSU. If his trail project at the park is approved by the city, then students enrolled in the class would help develop the trail. He is also seeking grant funding for the project through the FSU Faculty Development Grants Program for Regional Service and Engagement/Economic Development (RSEED).

For more information about Community Service Learning at FSU, call (304) 367-4830. For more information about Schmuck's Fifth Street Park project, e-mail him at mschmuck1@fairmontstate.edu.