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Rock County kids spring clean their communities

Look around you. Are things just a little bit better today than yesterday?

They are, even if you don’t immediately notice the improvements.

So, you may want to thank the 500-plus children and youth who raked, painted, cleaned and generally spruced up their Rock County communities on Saturday.

The occasion was the United Way of North Rock County’s 10th annual Youth Service Day.

Kids also cut brush along the Ice Age Trail, made blankets for the needy and cleared leaves from lawns at places such as Janesville’s Tallman House and at the home of an elderly couple.

Historic cemeteries also got their spring cleanings. The Edgerton Public Library got help moving books. Carver’s Rock Park has newly planted trees.

The scritch-scritch-scritch of rakes filled the air at the Rock County 4-H Fairgrounds, one of the job sites. Kids were painting, too.

A group of kids from Milton 4-H painted wooden fencing to be used to surround a flower garden on the fairgrounds.

Beth Fanning, one of the moms overseeing the project, tried to get the kids talk to a reporter: “Today is community service day. Think—what are we giving back to?”

“I don’t know,” one girl said sleepily as she dabbed on the hot-pink paint.

“Our community!” Fanning said.

Many of the kids were like that Saturday: They knew they had work to do, so they did it.

“Because there’s work to be done,” said Craig High School Key Club member Dan Wimann, 17, when asked why he got out of bed early on a Saturday morning.

“It’s just helping out and making things look better,” said Dani Mason, 15, as she and fellow Craig Key Club members painted the fairgrounds’ swine barn.

“I think it’s important to improve our community, and this is our fairgrounds, and it’s important that it look nice,” said Key Club member Katurah Day, 16.

Joshua Bennett, 13, of the Clinton 4-H Club, was raking leaves next to the Frances Willard Schoolhouse. Like a true farm kid, he knew why he was there: “It’s for the fairgrounds. Then we have less to do later.”

There is an official response to the question, of course. From the United Way: This is National Volunteer Week, so Youth Service Day’s purpose is to call attention to the efforts of our communities’ volunteers—who make things better every day of the year.

And, it would not be a surprise to find out that organizers hope that by getting kids involved, they will plant the seeds of volunteerism in a new generation.