WWU student-athletes to help clean up salmon habitat

Nearly two hundred Western Washington University student-athletes will be working alongside supervisors from the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department on Saturday, June 5, from 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon to prepare an area just off the Fairhaven Parkway for salmon habitat.

The volunteer project is the brainchild of Western’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which organized the community service work party. The idea was developed from student-athlete focus groups and SAAC meetings.

“I think it’s an opportunity to show that we do more than play sports,” said SAAC President Rory Blanche, a sophomore on the men’s basketball team. “It gets us out to be seen by other people doing something for the betterment of the whole community, not just Western.”

The student-athlete work party will be removing invasive species of plants and mulching the area. The city will provide all the gloves and tools as well as coordinators to direct the volunteers.

“The people at Parks and Rec have wanted to do this project for a long time, but haven’t had a big enough (volunteer) group to do it,” said Blanche. “It sounded perfect for us.”

As part of previous service efforts, the SAAC has been instrumental in developing projects to raise money for the Make-a-Wish foundation.