CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 When Dave Bailey needed a 500-pound barbecue pit moved from his Southside backyard onto a trailer, he knew he couldn\u2019t do it himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I couldn\u2019t do it myself,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n
He turned to Spare Hand Students, an app he found on Facebook that connects homeowners with local college students for odd jobs and chores around the house.<\/p>\n
Two students showed up to help. One of them was Felix Jackson, a first-year student at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Jackson grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and is studying rangeland wildlife and fisheries management.<\/p>\n
Since arriving in Corpus Christi, Jackson said, finding work has been a challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been able to find any. Like I\u2019ve got a few interviews, but no jobs, you know,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
The pit was Jackson\u2019s first job through the app. He heard about it from someone handing out flyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great. It was better than I thought it was gonna be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jackson said the extra money helps cover expenses like his apartment and books. The app lets students pick jobs that fit around their class schedules.<\/p>\n
For Bailey, hiring a student was about more than getting the job done.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I felt good about it. I realized they need the cash,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cThe guys were nice, efficient, showed up on time, and they got the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first job has already led to another. Bailey is hiring Jackson back to clean his gutters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just nice to give people an extra hand,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
Spare Hand Students started at Texas A&M University in College Station in 2024 and has since expanded to college towns across Texas and other states. In Corpus Christi, it currently works with TAMU-CC students.<\/p>\n
How to sign up<\/p>\n
Need a hand? Download the Spare Hand Students app on the Apple App Store or Google Play, or visit sparehandstudents.com<\/a>. Enter your address, describe the job, and choose a student based on their profile, price and availability.<\/p>\n Want to lend a hand? TAMU-CC students can sign up through the student version of the app using their college email address, then set their own rates and availability.<\/p>\n For the latest local news updates, click here<\/a>, or download the KRIS 6 News App.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 When Dave Bailey needed a 500-pound barbecue pit moved from his Southside backyard onto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156,3370],"class_list":["post-474866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news","tag-southside-corpus-christi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}