About a dozen volunteers got together Saturday afternoon to plaster, paint and carpet areas of the Arc of Alachua County, an organization that serves the developmentally disabled community of Alachua.
Health Oriented Professional Engineering Society, or HOPES, UF's engineering and health organization, collaborated with volunteers from UF's Biomedical Engineering Society and Home Depot's community service branch, Team Depot, to renovate the 20-year-old building.
The volunteers carpeted an exercise room and redesigned the courtyard, incorporating new benches and a garden, which will attract seasonal populations of butterflies year-round.
The group worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
HOPES will come back Sept. 10 to teach the regulars of the Arc minimal methods needed to maintain the courtyard.
Development Director Bonnie Flynn said the group approached her last spring with the offer to restore the facility.
Luan Chau, the club's president, said the project received assistance from Paul Hirneise, a general contractor, and plant expert Mary Brandenburg.
HOPES treasurer and fundraising chairwoman Samantha Smith has a developmentally disabled brother who has had a great impact on her support of the Arc project.
"I know how hard it is for developmentally disabled people to get jobs and hold them," Smith said.
The Arc is the only center of its kind in Alachua, providing entertainment, education and employment for 200 to 300 developmentally disabled Alachua County residents.
Flynn is enthusiastic about the change.
"The exercise room is going to be beautiful," she said.
