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Rockford Register Star
Ripples of change
March 12, 2005
Some University of Minnesota freshmen hatched an idea at 3 a.m. a year
ago. That idea brought them Saturday to Rockford, picking up garbage and
helping local efforts to renovate a Rock Street house.
The students formed a group called Students Today Leaders Forever and
spend their spring break traveling the country doing community service
work. Friday, three buses from the University of Minnesota and one from
the University of North Dakota, filled with 160 students, set out in all
directions across the country.
One bus pulled Friday night into Rockford. Students found accommodations
at RockfordCollege’s Seaver Gym. They joined AmeriCorp volunteers
through YouthBuild on Saturday to help in the renovation project and to
pick up garbage along Morgan Street and other areas near Auburn Street.
Rockford AmeriCorp worker William Chatman, 26, praised the idea began by
then-freshman Nick Lindberg of Minnesota. “It’s a great example of how
people give back and better our country,” Chatman said.
The college students in Rockford also plan to hit St. Louis;
Columbus,Ohio; and Harrisburg,Pa., before the four busloads meet in
Washington,D.C. They plan to clean a riverbank in the nation’s capital.
Lindberg, now a sophomore, said each busload can make a small ripple in
the 17 U.S. cities they will visit. Joined together in Washington, “we
can make a huge ripple,” he said.
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