With the start of spring, the Old Town Clovis (OTC) Kiwanis club has embraced the change of seasons by working with the Buchanan High School Key Club to help with the trail beautification process in OTC.
On Saturday, March 20, six students from the school’s Key Club worked for two and half hours to help clean two of the six tunnels along the OTC trail after hearing that the tunnels had been vandalized.
Due to the pandemic only six members from the club could partake in this voluntary activity. However, OTC Kiwanis’ board member and lead of the 3-2-1 Satellite Club, Taylor Hillman, said it means a lot to him that so many other students were willing to participate when asked to do so.
“It is amazing to see these kids show [and] put in some hard work. These six kids worked two and a half hours on two different tunnels and after the first tunnel I gave them an out to go home if they needed to and they stayed and painted both,” Hillman said.
The 3-2-1 Satellite Club is a chapter of the OTC Kiwanis Club that serves the community in a way that allows them to help without having to worry about their busy schedules.
Kiwanis International describes 3-2-1 clubs as a great option for those with demanding schedules and that it’s a great fit for people who prefer to meet and help with community activities and projects outside of the club’s normal meeting rooms.
OTC’s 3-2-1 Satellite Club has been working on the trail beautification project for the past three to four years. They have done their best to keep the trails clean and graffiti free so children and families can enjoy using the trail on a regular basis.
As of right now, tunnels one, two, five and six have been restored since February of this year. The middle tunnels, number three and four, have yet to be completed.
Hillman said the team would be monitoring those in the next month or so and will more than likely be recruiting the Buchanan Key Club members to help with this restoration project again.
“We had such [a] great turn out and work by the Buchanan Key Club kids. They actually asked if the Clovis North Key Club could come as well, so if we take over those two tunnels, we’ll sign up as many kids as we can get and just try to knock it out all at once,” Hillman said.
“These are the future leaders of our community, and so we want them to care, and we want them to be involved and these kids were perfect examples of that.”