North Jefferson News, Gardendale, AL

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March 5, 2010

Warrior to receive help to clean up city

By Melanie Patterson The North Jefferson News

WARRIOR — The City of Warrior is receiving long-distance help this month from volunteers who will spruce up the town.

Forty-two students from the University of North Dakota have volunteered four hours of their time to work in Warrior on March 16.

“I’m not sure why they chose Warrior, but I’m glad they did,” said Warrior Mayor Rena Hudson.

Hudson said the students will be painting the gazebo next to Warrior City Hall and will be cleaning sidewalks and benches along U.S. Hwy. 31.

“They will just go from north to south and clean up along the highway,” Hudson said. “We’re thrilled to have them.”

The students are members of Students Today, Leaders Forever (STLF).

Every year during spring break, STLF students travel across the nation and do good deeds along the way.

Shane Reed, a core leader for STLF at the University of North Dakota, said the organization is growing rapidly, with new STLF chapters “popping up all over the country.”

A total of 125 University of North Dakota students will split up into three bus tours. Each of the buses will travel from North Dakota to New Orleans along different routes.

Each group of students will stop to work in six cities along the way.

“We had a couple of big cities and we wanted a couple of smaller cities too,” said Reed.

Reed said his group found the City of Warrior by using Google maps, Wikipedia and other Internet resources.

The students will be bunking overnight at the Warrior Elementary School gym and using shower facilities at the former National Guard armory.

“The projects always vary,” he said. “We’ve pulled tires out of rivers, built houses, torn down houses. It all depends on the needs of the cities.”

STLF students have also planted trees, worked in recovery centers and at Salvation Army locations.

Reed said the organization has also sent volunteers to New Orleans and Florida to help in hurricane recovery efforts.

The project is called the Pay it Forward Tour.

“All we ask is that in the future they help others if they have the resources and the time,” Reed said.

To learn more about STLF, visit www.stlf.net.

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