SHADYSIDE — Students in the C-CAP program spent Tuesday sweeping the historic Loop area of Shadyside in preparation for next week’s Loop Festival.

C-CAP probation officer Aaron Walker said the program regularly includes community service, programming and evidence-based instruction.

He said community service activities like Tuesday’s allow students to complete court-ordered service hours while also giving them a chance to give back to the community. Walker said he believes it also helps instill community pride.

“It helps give back to the community and show them that there’s people that care about them, and that when they do a good job,” Walker said. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of people that come up to them and say thank you for what you do. So it shows them the positive things from completing community service. It really makes a difference.”

He added that, in addition to community service, students participate in evidence-based programming.

“We have speakers that come in, and we also have programming that are all evidence-based programs that have been scientifically proven to work with children,” Walker said.

He said all nine of the students sweeping the street are currently on probation.

“The C-CAP program goes through the summer, and we have the children four days a week. We have them for between eight and 10 hours, depending on what we’re doing,” Walker said. “We provide transportation and lunch for them.”

He added that during the winter season, the C-CAP program runs an alternative virtual learning classroom for students who are suspended.

“That program runs all year round. It just does something different in the summer than it does during the school year,” Walker said.

On Tuesday, the students were escorted by Walker and C-CAP virtual learning teacher Melanie Haswell, while Village Police Chief Don Collette provided traffic control.

Haswell, who also serves as a village council member, said the students’ work helps the village prepare for Loop Fest.

“Everybody needs help in different aspects, so it definitely helps out the village. These are things that we don’t have a lot of manpower for, so we have nine kids here doing things so that we can get done a lot sooner than one or two people that are busy working on other things that need to be done in our village,” Haswell said. “After sweeping the streets we are going to be in the community center scrubbing it down, cleaning the windows, putting tables and chairs away, and cleaning off shelves.”

The 17th annual Loop Festival will take place June 19-20. The festival will feature live music, food trucks, amusement rides, games and car and motorcycle shows.