The St. Patrick's Day riot on Fleming Drive drew many comparisons to Project X, a movie that documents an out-of-control party. Taking inspiration from this, and wanting to create something positive out of what some called "Project Fanshawe," Youssef Meddoui teamed up with a couple of friends to create Project Fanshawe College, a group that aims to clean up the mess the rioters left behind.

Meddoui, who graduated from Fanshawe's Business and Information Systems in December, was talking with a friend, Khatab Hindi, on Facebook after the riot took place. "Everyone around London has been blaming Fanshawe students (for what happened)," he said, adding that he wanted to change that negative perception.

He said he thought of the Kony 2012 video and how it raised awareness for an important issue. "(I thought,) let's make a video — show that Fanshawe students are not what everybody says they are," Meddoui said. "(Let's show) that we're hardworking students, we sit in the library, face to the book, trying to get good grades, trying to be successful."

From there, Meddoui and Hindi created a group on Facebook called Project Fanshawe College. "We made this group Sunday night, 6 p.m., and within one day, 560 members (had joined). It literally exploded," said Meddoui. He and Hindi teamed up with Brad Redman, Ashleyy Foster, Beth Jackson and Haley Wiltshire to take the project further, coming up with ways to raise money to repair the damage done to Fleming Drive.

"We're trying to create a lot of different events so we can raise as much money as we can to cover as much of the cost as we possibly can for the fences, the road that was paved, the police cars that were completely broken, the CTV van," said Redman, a student in Fanshawe's Pre-Technology program. "It's a lot of cost to cover and we most likely can't cover it all, but at least we can help."

The group organized a bottle drive that took place on March 24, and will be holding a bake sale in Forwell Hall on March 27 and 28. They said they plan to hold more events in the future. Meddoui said the money will be passed along to the City of London, where it will be distributed to the proper departments to take care of the damages.

Both Meddoui and Redman said they think this group could become a permanent one on campus. "It has a potential to turn into a group that could join the Fanshawe Student Union and go through the generations and continue the volunteer work and good deeds," said Redman.

Check out the Project Fanshawe College group at facebook.com/groups/ProjectFanshaweCollege to get involved. You can also check them out on Twitter: @project_fc.