City briefs

Hundreds volunteer for Day of Caring

Joel Pollock was able to relax Saturday and watch more than a dozen Kansas University students give the Lawrence Open Shelter a good scrubbing.

“They did all the really nasty jobs,” said Pollock, who is a volunteer at the shelter, 944 Ky. “We have enough trouble just doing the daily cleaning around here.”

For more than two hours, the students from the Phi Delta Theta fraternity cleaned the shelter as part of this year’s spring Day of Caring organized by the Roger Hill Volunteer Center. Other fraternity members took chores elsewhere in Lawrence.

In fact, more than 200 volunteers from various organizations and businesses participated in the event. There were 35 volunteer work ventures lined up, including indoor cleaning and outside landscaping and yard work.

Most of the events took place, despite a steady rain most of the day. A few outside jobs were canceled, and it was unclear whether they would be rescheduled.

“That will depend on the volunteers,” said David Morrissey, spokesman for the Hill center.

Schools

Teachers union gets new president

Wayne Kruse is stepping down as president of the Lawrence Education Assn.

Sam Rabiola, an English teacher at Free State High School, has been elected to take over the bargaining group that represents the Lawrence public schools’ nearly 900 teachers.

Kruse, a sixth-grade teacher at Quail Run School, has led the organization for five years.

East Lawrence

Meeting scheduled to plan mural project

Lawrence residents can attend meeting this week to help plan a mural project at Municipal Stadium, 11th and Delaware streets.

The mural is part of the Lawrence sesquicentennial celebration and will draw on the history of the East Lawrence neighborhood.

The planning meeting is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the East Lawrence Center, 1245 E. 15th St.