Big-hearted American students clean up in Tweedbank
Friday, July 4 2008
A group of kind-hearted American youngsters have given up their chance of a relaxing summer holiday to do some work in Tweedbank instead.
The group of 15 students and five group leaders from Washington State exchanged temperatures of over 90ºF at home for somewhat worse weather in Tweedbank. And one of the duties they kindly agreed to take on was to help SBC staff in their continuing work to clear up litter.
The group are all members of the Assemblies of God Fellowship, who regularly organise trips to other countries, helping out at the local churches in the areas they visit and carrying out all sorts of work in the local community.
They contacted Scottish Borders Council to offer their services and Craig Blackie of SBLocal was only too pleased to put them to work in Tweedbank.
Councillor Len Wyse, Executive Member for Environmental Services said: “This group of young people do excellent work and have been extremely helpful in assisting SB local and our cleansing staff in carrying out litter picking and clearing of rubbish in parts of the central Borders. They do all of this work on a voluntary basis and we very much value what they do and look forward to working with them again as they make a great difference to the communities that they have worked in.”
The group do get to have some fun while they are here, however. They have enjoyed a visit to Edinburgh Castle and have been learning all about the Scottish Borders and its history. They were also planning a football swap – showing the locals how to play American Football, in exchange for a good game of ‘soccer’.
Unified Solutions.