Nearly 200 CSX employees from around the country descended on Barksdale Boys and Girls Club Tuesday morning for a service day dedicated to improvements for the club.

The company employees tackled projects including building an outdoor playground, painting a mural in the gymnasium, restoring the little league baseball field and building picnic tables, all within five hours.

"This is truly a blessing for us," Club Director Terrance Artis said Tuesday. "For us and the kids to receive this project and be selected out of five other prospective projects, they truly believed in our mission. I know what it means to get nice, shiny new stuff and our kids are so excited."

The club was closed for the day, but a few children were allowed to tour the building with a camera crew following as they exclaimed over the projects in progress.

The service day comes in the middle of CSX's three-day, annual Public Safety and Environment conference that provides training for 150 CSX Public Safety and Environment workers. Vounteers that came out on Tuesday were from across the 23 states that CSX covers.

A.R. “Gus” Barksdale Boys & Girls Club opened in 1977.The club grew from a small house serving less than 200 club members to its current 18,600 square foot location, which serves approximately 975 club members year round. It is part of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, which operates 24 Clubs in 10 metro counties.