For immediate release — April 11, 2012
(DALLAS) — Dallas County Community College District wants students and community members to get down and dirty for a good cause! A one-day event, “Be the Change,” will bring together people who will volunteer their time to make a difference — to literally be an agent of change — as they clean up the Great Trinity Forest, the largest urban forest in North America, on Saturday, April 28.
DCCCD students are invited to sign up, bring classmates and friends, and give back to their community. Service learning credit is available for those students who need to earn hours. The event is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon, and sign-in starts at 8 a.m. Participants are invited to park at the DART light rail station at 8th and Corinth, just across the street from the entrance to the Great Trinity Forest launch site for the event in Dallas.
“We are recruiting students who attend college throughout DCCCD to volunteer for this event, which will be led by Groundwork Dallas,” said Mary Norman, the district’s director of student and community engagement. “Mahatma Gandhi once said that each of us needs to be the change that we wish to see in the world. Our event enables students and community members to be that change — to volunteer their time and to help preserve a natural treasure in our area.”
Volunteers must bring release forms, and participants must be 16 years of age or older. Release forms for minors (one for DCCCD and one for Groundwork Dallas) and for adults (an adult liability waiver for Groundwork Dallas and an adult release form for DCCCD) must be submitted at sign-in. Visit DCCCD’s website and click on the provided links to download those forms at
http://www.dcccd.edu/ss/studentlife/bc/Pages/default.aspx. Each participant must complete a volunteer registration form for the event, which also is provided on the website.
The first 200 participants will receive free T-shirts, and the day will feature free food, lots of fun, service learning credits and a way to give back to the community as a volunteer. Those volunteers are asked to wear long pants, long sleeves and closed-toed shoes. They may want to bring water, a hat, sunscreen, a backpack and gloves, said Norman. She added that volunteers must be dressed properly to participate in the beautification project.
“This day of service is designed to inspire and foster civic engagement and community building through volunteering and community service,” said Norman. “The event serves as an extension of DCCCD’s mission to provide students with opportunities to grow personally and develop citizenship. Groundwork Dallas is an excellent partner for this project because its mission is to enable people to realize the merits of the Great Trinity Forest, as well as encourage the community to use, preserve and enhance this wonderful natural resource.”
For more information, contact Norman by phone at (214) 378-1758 or by email at
mknorman@dcccd.edu.
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Press contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819
(645)