Students LEAP to community service
LEAPS completed its fourth year on Saturday and more than 600 students donated their time to making the program successful.
By Joi Harris
Staff Reporter

Homecoming got an early start Saturday morning as more than 600 students donated approximately 1,200 hours of community service to the Fort Worth community.

In its fourth year, TCU LEAPS, leaders encouraging all people to serve, participants and organizers alike say the experience was more fulfilling and less chaotic than years past.

Participants said transportation was less organized in the past and led to less work getting done.

“I spent more time riding a bus, than actually doing work last year,” said Kelly Cowdery, a senior early childhood education major.

Rebecca Whitesell, a senior biology major said having check-in at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum this year instead of the Rickel Building made the transition a lot smoother. It enabled people to find their groups easier and made bus dismissal quicker, she said.

TCU LEAPS director Brad Thompson, a senior religion major, said in the past, the people at the sites were not fully aware of their responsibility in the process.

“They are not only responsible for providing enough work, but also allowing time for volunteers to reflect on the days activity and its meaning,” Thompson said.

To alleviate the problem, Thompson said, the planning committee contacted sites much earlier in the process instead of giving them until the week of TCU LEAPS to commit. As a result, all but a few of this year’s sites were previous participants, he said.

Jaye Lycan, executive director of Eastside Ministries, has participated in TCU LEAPS for the past three years. Each year he said he looks forward to the event because he always has a big project for students to do. Having people come who are really motivated about working also helps, he said.

“I’m very excited that students are aware of volunteering and what it does,” Lycan said.

With hundreds of participants it is impossible to please everyone, but the committee tried to place students in areas closest to their preference as possible, said Robin Williamson, community service coordinator.

Tracy Null, a senior interior design major participating for the first time, said she did not know what to expect. Null and 20 other students worked at a battered women’s shelter. They had the task of mowing what Null said appeared to be a 7-acre field in less than two hours.

“Although to us it was just mowing a field, for the women who lived there it made their home a nicer place to be,” she said.