The city’s Westside Community Improvement Association proposed the project, which will be carried out by Youth Educational Services (Y.E.S.), HSU’s student-run volunteer organization.

Rain or shine, 75-100 Y.E.S. volunteers will take part in the Serve-a-Thon on March 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Jefferson Elementary. They will weed the school’s playground, carry out landscape work and prepare a retaining wall for a mural painting.

These same students offer three to five hours a week to one of 15 Y.E.S. programs that address a host of unmet needs in North Coast communities. The Serve-a-Thon will enable students from different Y.E.S. programs to team up and combine their volunteer efforts.

The project coincides with Y.E.S.’s annual fundraising drive in March, when HSU students and staff dispatch appeal mailers to family and friends. Y.E.S. volunteers contribute thousands of hours annually.

The Westside Community Improvement Association launched the revitalization six years ago when Eureka City Schools closed Jefferson because of declining enrollment citywide. The school stands at the center of the Westside neighborhood, and its facilities and playground were second homes to community children and families for more than 70 years.

The Westside group embarked on a succession of repairs, improvements and maintenance at the site, which serves a low-income, ethnically diverse neighborhood. The association is a nonprofit founded to combat blight and revitalize neighborhoods with better educational, recreational and vocational opportunities in greater Eureka.

Information about the March 30 Serve-a-Thon is available from Mary Stuart at 826-4965 or mhs7001@humboldt.edu

Details of the Jefferson Project are posted at www.jefferson-project.org.