Serve the City

Homeowners on Saturday got a big surprise. Not only did about 200 GCU students descend on their homes to complete landscaping and painting projects, but some of them also received household goods from the University’s new CityServe warehouse. Students fanned out into the neighborhood this weekend to work on home improvement projects at nine homes. The renovation blitz was part of Serve the City, the first Serve the City since COVID hit in spring 2020. “It’s nice to see everyone out here doing it (volunteering) for the same reasons: to show the love of God to others,” said one of the student volunteers, Brooke Alaniva.

When COVID-19 struck Arizona last spring, the University paused many of its community initiatives, including its most visible one — its partnership with Habitat for Humanity to renovate homes in the Canyon Corridor. But after a 12-month hiatus, about 50 GCU students and staff on Saturday fanned out into the neighborhood to work on renovation projects at five homes as part of Serve the City. It was a pared down version of the semiannual event to keep in line with COVID-19 protocols. It also was a triumphant return to doing what GCU does best: help its neighbors. “It’s just really cool to be able to slowly bring back things that we really look forward to doing under normal circumstances,” said senior finance major Jacob Norgord while painting one of the homes. “It just helps us feel like we’re one step closer to hopefully being back to normal, even if that is with masks or whatever it might be.”

The sun wasn’t even up and the temperature was a frigid 40-something degrees. But that didn’t dissuade more than 200 Lopes from showing up, ready to paint and landscape, for the semiannual Serve the City. And for just the second time, Parent Council members, along with other parent volunteers, served alongside their children to make a difference in the Canyon Corridor, helping move GCU and partner Habitat for Humanity of Central Arizona closer to their 700-homes-renovated goal.