Park Avenue in downtown Idaho Falls focus of cleanup project Tuesday morning
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IDAHO FALLS – A group of 20 high school students will gather in downtown Idaho Falls Tuesday morning for a cleanup project.
The seniors at American Heritage Charter School provide a service project every year ahead of their graduation ceremonies and this year’s project will focus on cleaning up and beautifying Park Avenue.
Shawn Rose, one of the school principals, tells EastIdahoNews.com the project gets underway at 9 a.m and will consist of planting flowers, trimming grass lines, removing weeds and trash, along with other general cleanup efforts along the road.
“One of the pillars of our school is teaching kids service,” Rose says. “We emphasize service to others and how it helps students grow their character. We have a character education program called ‘Great Expectations’ that we teach. We teach the whole child — not just academics but character education.”
The onset of COVID-19 prevented the school from having a service project or in-person graduation ceremony last year, so Rose says they’re excited the class of 2021 is able to do this.
The cleanup effort along Park Avenue was a last-minute project for the school. Rose says they were planning to do a project with the American Legion retiring old flags. It’s something the school has done in previous years, but there was a conflict this year.
Amy Peterson, a teacher at the school, reached out to the Idaho Falls Rescue Mission last week to inquire about possible service projects and that’s how this got started. The IFRM is a homeless shelter on Park Avenue.
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Olivia Stauffer, the community relations manager for the IFRM, says there’s been a need for cleanup in this area for a long time. Volunteers will often clean up windows and garbage, but nothing as extensive as the project the students are doing.
“I called the city to find out if (there was room in the budget for a cleanup project) but they said we’re just outside the downtown development corporation’s boundary,” Stauffer says. “When (Amy) reached out for the project, we (were appreciative) and thought it would be a great thing.”
A student painted a mural on the north side of the Idaho Falls Rescue Mission several years ago. The seniors did a service project at New Sweden Cemetery two years ago.
Tuesday’s project in downtown is expected to last several hours. The students will then be recognized during a graduation ceremony at Riverbend Ranch at 6 p.m.
“The Frank and Belinda Vandersloot Foundation is the founder of our school and Frank owns Riverbend Ranch as well. He’s been kind enough to let us use that for graduation,” says Rose. “This will be our third year at Riverbend Ranch (and we’re grateful to them and are very proud of our graduating class).”
