University Chronicle Extras:
Movies
|
Rate a Pic
|
Horoscopes
|
Career
|
Scholarships
|
Travel
|
GradZone
News
Briefly
Calendar of Events
Commentary
Sports
Diversions
World News
Classifieds
Login
Letter Submission
Search
Archive
Publishing Policy
Mail Subscriptions
St. Cloud State University
College Publisher
Home
>
News
Students beautify community
By Debbie Peterson
Published:
Monday, October 20, 2003
Media Credit: Ching Fung
Natasha Jurek (Left) and Trisha Stachowski (right) join the Husky Clean-Up.
About 100 SCSU students and community members alike gathered at Barden Park Sunday morning for the second annual Husky Neighborhood Clean-Up; all with the goal of beautifying the communities surrounding campus after homecoming weekend.
"By holding this clean-up, we (the student body) are showing the community that during homecoming, we're not just crazy college students making a careless mess, we are also doing good things for our community," said fifth-year student and member of Z-Club Jesse Birnstihl.
The Husky Neighborhood Clean-Up was sponsored by Volunteer Connection and co-sponsored by Z-Club.
Participants arrived at 10 a.m., signed in, were split off into groups of about 10 to 15 people and were assigned blocks and alleyways to focus on. For the protection of the participants, vinyl gloves were given out and leather gloves could be checked out. Those who did help clean up were advised not to pick up any broken glass, and to leave the garbage-filled bags on the curb to be picked up and brought back by Volunteer Connection workers to a dumpster provided by waste management for the purpose of the clean-up. Kara Good, the graduate assistant of Volunteer Connection said that the westside of campus was the focal point for the morning clean-up.
"We guess at about which areas will be the worst, guessing that student living areas will be the worst and then assign clean-up groups according to that," Good said. "The westside of campus is where a lot of our student housing is, so we focused on that. We want to build a stronger connection with the community and with St. Cloud residents."
Good also said the Neighborhood University Community Council (NUCC), favored the clean-up, especially after expected homecoming garbage excess.
There were more volunteers this year, and less garbage as well. About eighty participants volunteered last year. Volunteer Connection Coordinator Lissa Staples was happy to see the number of volunteers that showed up this year.
"It's a little nerve-wracking planning major events," Staples said. "You never know how many people are going to show, but this year was so 'wow�' to see how many came."
Many of the participants volunteered either because of class requirements or through the student athlete advisory council. About forty SCSU athletes participated, six from the women's volleyball team and the rest from the swimming and diving team.
Tracey Foede, who heard about the neighborhood clean-up from the Volunteer Connection Web site, came because of a speech communication class requirement.
"There is not much garbage on campus," she said.
Mitch Johnson, a third-year SCSU student and business management major, helped clean up in the noncampus area near the Fifth Avenue Coborns.
"Where the houses are, where the parties are, the garbage was worse than it was on campus," he said. "It really didn't look like much, but when we really looked, we ended up with about four bags of garbage."
Nathan Church, SCSU vice president of student life and development is credited with the initial idea of this event. He also attended the clean-up.
"It's important for the community to experience the positive impact of the college, instead of just the negative," Church said.
Forum:
displaying
1
-
1
of
1
top level comments
Many thanks to all who participated.... (10/20/03)
Post a comment
