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Operation Restoration a success

Fri, 05/27/2016 - 7:28 pm

After nearly a year of planning and preparation, Jacksboro FFA executed a successful Operation Restoration.

The students came up with the project to give back to the community through service. With the first run of Operation Restoration, there were 17 property owners who signed up for participants to mow, weed eat, trim trees and more. 

There were 88 volunteers from FFA, Leo Club, FCCLA, FBLA, AVID, Lion’s Club and more who showed up at the high school ag building 8 a.m. Saturday morning.

The groups were divided up into nine teams each headed up by an adult leader and sent off to take care of one or more of the properties. The groups were able to tackle all 17 on the list that day.

“I thought it was a huge success,” said FFA sponsor Loren Sell. “We had so much positive feedback from people driving by, phone calls, Facebook, elderly people who would walk up to us from a block down and ask how to get on the list next time.”

The activity from the volunteers was infectious. 

“We went and started working and later, all the neighbors started cleaning their yards,” said FFA member Kamlynn Thomas.

“It turned into an entire town cleanup day,” said FFA’s Hunter Hackley.

The groups focused on helping homeowners who have difficulty keeping up with property maintenance.

“The lady whose house I worked on was disabled and had trouble getting around,” said Tyler Harmonson with FFA. “When we got there, there was grass in the backyard that was 4-feet tall and she just couldn’t take care of it.”

“It’s eye-opening. You wonder how does it get (grown up) like this and then you realize, they really need help,” Hackley said.

To read the complete article, see the May 27 edition of the Herald-Gazette.