WWU student-athletes help parks department prepare salmon habitat

More than 100 hundred Western Washington University student-athletes worked alongside supervisors from the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department on Saturday, June 5, to prepare an area just off the Fairhaven Parkway for salmon habitat.

The volunteer project was 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.

“It was 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 got 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 was removing invasive species of plants and mulching the area. The city provided all the gloves and tools as well as coordinators to direct the volunteers.

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