About 300 students, youth ministers and others will be in Rome beginning tonight to participate in March Mission Madness, a weekend youth retreat sponsored by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia.

The students will be doing volunteer work at 27 different sites across Rome, according to John Uldrick, minister to students and missions at Rome’s First Baptist Church.

The sites include Heritage Park, where the youth will participate in a river cleanup; Riverwood Retirement Center and Roman Court, where the volunteers will spend time with the residents playing games and doing some cleaning and painting; and the Fielder Gym in South Rome, where the volunteers will play sports with children and adults with disabilities as part of the Challenger Sports program.

Each year the CBF chooses two sites to host March Mission Madness, Uldrick said.

The other retreat was in Macon during the first week of the month.

First Baptist Church was one of the chosen sites for March Mission Madness in 2002, and students from the church have been attending events in other cities over the past few years, Uldrick said.

The students and youth ministers will have a gathering in the First Baptist Church fellowship hall after dinner tonight.

Following an early-morning breakfast Saturday, the students will leave for their mission sites.

The YMCA will host a party for the group after dinner and worship at the church Saturday night.

The weekend will end with a closing worship service at the church at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.