Spring Breakers help clean up Panama City Beach
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) – The Volunteer State is living up to its name.
Students from Tennessee Tech University are helping to clean up remaining Hurricane Michael remnants in the Greenwood Acres neighborhood of Panama City Beach.
“The majority of the homes had been repaired and they just had some lingering things; hauling of debris, some cleanout that they just physically couldn’t do so it was a great opportunity for this group of college students to come in and be able to provide that type of assistance to this neighborhood,” Rebuild Bay County Executive Director Donna Pilson said.
The Greenwood Acres Homeowners Association President Ronnie Clay said he was glad to be able to partner with Rebuild Bay on this so residents can finally have the last physical memories of the storm erased, especially because many of them of incapable of fixing the problems themselves.
“This is a 55+ community,” Clay said. “A lot of these people are elderly and can’t perform the duties of it and they’ve come in here and pressure washed a lot of houses, cut back a lot of landscape and a lot of them had some unnecessary items they needed to be hauled off they just couldn’t do it. They’ve done all that so far.”
Volunteers said they have been glad to help out and have been inspired by residents’ stories.
“I met one woman, she was so sweet, and to hear her story about Hurricane Michael was very impactful and it makes me really thankful for what I have and it gives me hope for the world and for humanity,” Colleen McCabe said.
The volunteer group leader is proud the kids wanted to spend spring break making a difference.
“Instead of spending their Spring Break to party or to have fun doing other things or serving themselves, they’re having fun serving others,” Bryan Vaughn said.
The volunteers will continue their clean-up effort in Greenwood Acres Tuesday.