Helping hands: Avon Lake students volunteer for day of service

AVON LAKE — Too young for back pain and achy joints, a small army of high schoolers didn't break a sweat Wednesday as they carried heavily loaded boxes up from the basement of the Avon Lake Public Library. In about 15 minutes, they'd moved hundreds of books and DVDs upstairs to be sold in the Friends of the Library's spring sale, which will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. About 300 juniors and seniors chose to be part of Avon Lake High School's WE Serve Day of community service, said Assistant Superintendent Jack Dibee. The event was designed to show kids how important it is to help others, "and to see all of the work that goes into the things that we sometimes take for granted," he said. Camryn TenBrink, a junior, volunteers regularly at the library, and said she hoped classmates would see how tight-knit its workers are. "We're always just trying to help each other," she said. "We're all one big family here. If they could even get a glimpse of that, it would mean a lot." Throughout the morning, other students cleaned wheelchairs and walkers for residents of Independence Village in Avon Lake, cleaned up the garden at Village Project in Bay Village and set up picnic tables, painted, mulched and planted flowers at the entrance of Vincent Elementary School in Lorain. For many, WE Serve Day was a chance to lock down community service hours needed for graduation and clubs. Camryn said she's been slowly logging her hours, but the process has been less work than fun. Fellow junior Matthew Stueue said that as a National Honor Society member, he's required to complete 10 hours of community service each year. So far, getting those hours in hasn't been hard, thanks to help from teachers who connect students with opportunities, he said. In addition to WE Serve Day, he's also volunteered at sporting events, taking tickets and lending a hand behind the scenes. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.