On a Saturday this past September, cleaning day took on a whole new meaning for the Kiwanis Club of Maryville, Tennessee. Its members were part of a group of 100 volunteers who worked at least four hours (many worked even more) to clean the interior and exterior of the Boys & Girls Club of Blount County.

Joining the Kiwanians were volunteers from the club’s Service Leadership Programs at Maryville College (Circle K International), Heritage and Maryville High Schools (Key Club), and Eagleton and Heritage Middle Schools, Montgomery Ridge Intermediate School and Maryville Junior High School (Builders Clubs). Several friends of Kiwanians and community members also joined the project. In all, the volunteers performed more than 325 service hours. Patsy and Robert Russell, both past presidents of the Maryville Kiwanis Club, coordinated arrangements with all Service Leadership Programs and Kiwanis members.

Inside the Boys & Girls Club, participants cleaned and repainted more than 100 cubbyholes in the dining area and washed and tidied walls and several classrooms. Outside, volunteers removed overgrown shrubs, trees and weeds from the building’s west and south fronts and the interior playground area. Maryville Kiwanians supervised all youth volunteers to prevent injuries.

After all the hard work, the volunteers relaxed over a meal of pizza (donated by downtown Knoxville’s Papa John’s Pizza) and cookies made by volunteers.

The Boys & Girls Club also received a donation from the Kiwanis Club of Maryville Foundation of 20 new folding tables and 128 folding chairs for the dining hall, along with carts to store and move them. In the future, Kiwanians plan to strip and refinish the dining hall floors.