With a little more than a month left before members of the Class of 2016 make their final walk as students of Dowagiac Union High School on the grounds of Chris Taylor Alumni Field, the Class of 2017 pitched in to lend a hand to their upperclassmen.

Around 20 high school juniors, joined by a handful of parents and younger siblings, performed some spring cleaning around the high school and football field Sunday morning. The group of students broke into separate groups, with some handling edging work around the school’s sidewalks, others dusting up dirt and loose gravel around the parking lots and some repainting the edges of the pavement.

The students were looking to help improve the look of the school in time for the senior commencement ceremony, which is scheduled to take place June 5. The juniors decided to take on the project as a way to “pay it forward,” said Lisa Thorne, the software support specialist with the district who volunteered Sunday alongside her daughter, Isabel.

Much of the equipment used by students was donated by local residents, Thorne said.