More than 300 Marietta College students are signed up to participate in the annual Make A Difference Day Saturday, but with 28 projects lined up, more hands are needed.
"We would love to have more people from the community come out and help because we certainly need a lot of people," said Amanda Dever, AmeriCorps VISTA for Marietta College, who is participating in her first Make A Difference Day at the school. "This community has already blown me away with its level of service, so I know there is interest."
Most of the projects will be worked on Saturday, with a few Friday and next weekend. For those who want to give but don't have time to donate, there are four different drives being conducted for coats and blankets, food for the Marietta Community Food Pantry, household products for domestic abuse victims and items for the Humane Society of the Ohio Valley.
Donations are being accepted Saturday at the McDonough Center at Marietta College.
Projects going on during Make A Difference Day, a national day of service, include maintenance work on the Incredible Community Playground, cleaning of the Start Westward monument, winterizing the community garden behind Food 4 Less and rehabilitation of the stage at the Mid-Ohio Valley Players Theatre.
The largest groups are needed at the community garden and the Incredible Community Playground, said Tanya Judd-Pucella, assistant professor and director of civic engagement at Marietta College.
For the students involved, many of the projects will go on past Make A Difference Day, with a yearlong focus on hunger-related issues.
Five projects focus on hunger relief, including the food drive and garden projects, participation in the traditional "Empty Bowls" project in Marietta and assisting with a free community meal from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the First Baptist Church of Marietta.
"The church offers a free meal once a month, and this enables them to offer a second," said Judd-Pucella. "All these projects are a great way to give back."
The other hunger project was a kickoff held at Williamstown Elementary School Monday that focused on starting a conversation with the students about hunger issues.
"It was a really nice experience," said Dever. "The students were very, very responsive."
