College students beautify Lincolnville

 
A dozen students from Boston College spent last week sprucing up public areas in Lincolnville and bunking down in the fire station.
“I look forward to this every year. Great group of kids, wonderful program,” said Mayor Tyrone Aiken.
The students are part of Boston College’s Appalachia Volunteers Program, which sends about 400 students each spring break to low-income communities along the Atlantic seaboard as part of a year-long program of study on social justice and structural poverty.
Aiken said the town has been affiliated with the program for about 10 years, and each group of students raises the bar for the next year’s.
This year, the students painted the exterior trim of Town Hall, refurbished the rusty flag pole, landscaped the Town Hall sign and planted flower beds around town.
Aiken said the town will be able to maintain the landscaping through its use of jail trustees.
Student co-leaders Mike Yu and Savannah House, both seniors, said it has been a wonderful experience of bonding as a group and with the community.
They took two short sightseeing trips, one to Sullivan’s Island and one to downtown Charleston, but primarily remained in Lincolnville, where one of the highlights of the trip was the homemade meals provided by a resident.
“Usually on these trips you don’t eat as well as you do at home,” House said.
On this trip, however, they got to enjoy “quintessential Southern cuisine,” including, Yu said, the “best biscuits I’ve ever had in my life.”
The students were scheduled to return to snowy Boston last weekend.