Students got their hands dirty while cleaning up Atlanta neighborhoods in TEAM Buzz community service projects this fall.

Nearly 1,500 members of the Georgia Tech community volunteered their time to do everything from rake leaves to build homes in TEAM Buzz projects this fall. The majority of them offered their support to neighborhoods in metropolitan Atlanta.

About 1,200 students, faculty and staff participated in projects for this year's Atlanta TEAM Buzz community service day on Oct. 27, logging more than 6,000 total community service hours. Volunteers participated in about 30 various projects, including cleanup efforts in the English Avenue neighborhood near campus and at the Jerusalem House, which provides housing to homeless people living with HIV/AIDS.

"It's a lot harder than it looks, but it's definitely worth the challenge," said Jeremy Atcheson, a third-year building construction major and the public relations director for TEAM Buzz. Next year, Atcheson will serve as president of the organization.

"It's definitely good getting Tech students involved in the community, because Tech is generally known as being its own little bubble," he said. "Getting students out to see the community they live in and help out is a good thing."

Launched by a group of students in 1997 as a way to lend a helping hand to the Atlanta community, TEAM Buzz has grown to become a national event in which about 40 Georgia Tech clubs participate each year.