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| Wooster student-athletes and coaches performed electrical work, insulation, and created a porch during their trip with the Appalachia Service Project. |
Earlier this summer, nine student-athletes and two coaches from The College of Wooster spent four days on an Appalachia Service Project with partial support by an APEX mini-grant from the College, While in Wyoming County, W.Va., the 11-member travel party completed emergency home repairs for low-income families.
Wooster's contingent on the trip included soccer student-athletes Maddy Ireton, Connor Hawkins, Austin Russell, Ousmane Sy; women's tennis student-athlete Joy Li; volleyball student-athletes Gabrielle Basinski, Marija Cyvas, Erica Roberts, and Eva Stebel; and soccer coaches Wes Davis and Andy Zidron.
The group's construction duties included electrical work, insulation, creation of a porch, and adding a child-friendly handrail. Outside of the construction, Wooster's travel party learned about the cyclical nature of generational poverty, issues central to Appalachia, and compared income and economics of Wayne County, Ohio to counties in West Virginia.
The Appalachia Service Project inspires hope and service through volunteer home repair and replacement in Central Appalachia, and has been around for nearly 50 years. Overall, this is the third time Wooster's student-athletes have participated in the project.