Getting up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday was not Brittny Morrison’s normal routine. In fact, she said she was up most of the night Friday night and had to be roused by her roommate.

But the 19-year-old freshman from Calhoun said it was important for her to be at Main Elementary School to participate in Berry College’s First-Year Service Day.

Morrison was at the school at 8 a.m. raking leaves and cut-ting brush away from an overgrown area near a soccer goal and cleaning up an outdoor classroom built as the result of a partnership between the college and the school.

When the students arrived, the pond was full of debris and vines covered a fence nearby.

By 11 a.m., the pond was clear and students were hauling the cleared brush into the woods.

Working at the classroom has been one of the service projects tackled by freshman since the first service day in 1998, said Dr. Steven Bell.

With smidgens of dirt covering her jeans and black work gloves on her hands, Morrison said, “This is great because I am helping kids have this big soccer field.”

Troy Mulder, an animal science major from Jacksonville, N.C., was sanding the posts at the tree house at Ridge Ferry Park in hopes of removing the graffiti there.

“I got into Berry without having to pay anything out of my pocket,” he said. “So this is my chance to give back.”

Working by Mulder’s side was Alexis Carter, another animal science major from Lawrenceville.

“It’s helped me to get to know my classmates better and like I am a part of Rome,” she said.

About 700 students participated in service projects throughout Rome and Floyd County that included painting at several schools and work at organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Harbor House, Rome Action Ministries, and the Sexual Assault Center of Northwest Georgia. Students from Berry also joined the annual Etowah River Blue Trail Clean Up from 9 a.m. to noon at the US 411 bridge over the Etowah River.