VANCLEAVE, Miss. (WLOX) – Sounds of power tools filled the Daisy Vestry Park in Vancleave Tuesday, along with volunteers from all over the nation.
“It’s a beautiful park, and we hope we’re adding some value to it,” George Levasseur told WLOX.
Levasseur sold his Massachusetts home about one year ago to hit the road full-time with his wife.
“We came up with a list of things that we want to accomplish, and at the top of that list was giving back,” he said. “We wanted to make sure we did some sort of volunteer work, and this just fit the bill.”
The RV travel group called A Year to Volunteer is providing community service from one state to the next.
“Check Mississippi off the list because our goal is all 50 states,” Phil Roos said.
Roos and his wife Shar founded the organization in February 2020 and embarked on the mission in Marianna, Florida.
This week, Vancleave marked their first stop in Mississippi.
“It’s gonna, hopefully, be a great gathering place for the local community,” they said. “We hope it’s going to be the Vancleave hotspot.”
Jackson County Recreation Director Darcie Crew said she first met the team members at a local RV park.
“It’s their only project they’ve ever done in Mississippi, so we were very fortunate to connect with them and have them on-site with us,” she said. “We thought of this park because it really needed some love.”
For new members Laura Kernodle and Lori Schubring, it’s their first week on the job.
“As a full-time RVer, you can only vacation so much,” Kernodle said.
They said volunteering is nothing new to them.
“We like to give back to the communities that we travel to in any way that we can,” Schubring said.
Park improvements include a new basketball court, nature trail, pavilion area, sidewalks, picnic tables, lighting, parking and more.
So far, this is the group’s 20th project across 15 states, and the team has logged more than 23,000 volunteer hours.
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