WVUToday

West Virginia University students are looking for help in preparing for the annual Students Helping Other People (SHOP) and Toy Mountain programs to benefit local disadvantaged children this holiday season. WVU's Student Organization Services and Student Government Association are collecting financial donations to benefit 80 or more kids ages 6-12 from Monongalia County through mid-December.

In the past two years more than 36,000 pounds of bottles and cans were recycled at home football games through West Virginia University's Mountaineers Recycle Program. These recycling efforts saved 132 trees, 195,000 kilowatt-hours, 9,000 gallons of oil, 7,800 gallons of gasoline and prevented the equivalent of 68 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released.

Small and rural communities now have an easy, and free, place to turn to for articles and educational resources designed to increase awareness about crucial water and wastewater issues they face. A newly launched Web site, www.nesc.wvu.edu/waterwedrink, is part of "The Water We Drink: Small Community Outreach Campaign," and offers information about maintaining safe, sustainable and secure water supplies in small and rural communities.

West Virginia University and Marshall University are joining forces to help communities throughout the Mountain State redevelop blighted former industrial sites known as brownfields.

Lucky's Attic Thrift Shop, a project of Animal Friends of North Central West Virginia, and Christian Help, a nondenominational, non-profit organization working to improve the lives of those in need, were two of 15 service projects aided during Make a Difference Day, a project of the WVU Center for Civic Engagement and the United Way of Monongalia and Preston counties.

The WVU Mountaineer Maniacs are hosting a Coaches vs. Cancer fundraising dinner to help men's basketball Coach Bob Huggins raise money for the American Cancer Society.

With the holiday season fast approaching, engineering students at WVU are planning an event to help local children ride into a happy holiday season. Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honorary, is hosting its Fall Bicycle Drive Nov. 1-14. Used bikes for children or adults that are in repairable condition will be accepted, then repaired and donated to area residents in need.

Help a senior who is disabled, carve pumpkins with someone who needs a friend, collect food items or rake leaves - these are just some of things planned around the Morgantown community for 2009 national Make a Difference Day.