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On a rainy Saturday in Portland Square cleaned up for Spring
BY DANYA D. LANDGREBE
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
ISSUE: 78/28
TYLER SWEENEY / STATESMAN
As rain steadily drizzled down on Saturday afternoon,
approximately 90 UMD students gathered at Portland Square to nab some trash in the Spring Clean Up. The clean up, arranged by the Better Neighbors program of the Student Association (SA), took place last Saturday with sororities, fraternities, athletic teams and student groups who came to better the environment and community.
“We had almost 90 people show this year. That was way, way, way more than I was hoping for,” said Better Neighbors coordinator Molly Causse. She said that this year’s turnout was much higher than years previous. “It’s exciting because there are so many of us.”
Some groups did the clean up to fulfill service requirements while others were just cleaning for the cause. “This is my second time doing this [clean up], but we’ve been doing this for years,” said Alpha Phi Omega member Josh Gillson. The fraternity asks its members to fulfill a service requirement of 30 hours of volunteer work per year.
This isn’t the first time for clubs like the community club, either. “We’re just out here picking up garbage, trying to meet other people from other clubs and giving back to the community,” said community club member Stacy Jorgenson. Besides bettering the community, the groups were offered an incentive of cash prizes. Alpha Phi Omega was the group with the most garbage and was awarded $100. The runner up, Beta Lambda Phi, received $50. Prizes were also awarded for the most artistic piece of garbage found, which was a diary filled with a child’s drawings.
The most compelling item, however, was the item that bettered the community the most from its removal. A large nail bed was found and removed by a member of the UMD women’s basketball team. Likewise, most volunteers found the project to be worth it. “It’s only a couple hours of being sticky and dirty,” said Olivia Hedlund, member of the on-campus sorority Beta Lambda Phi, who helped along with 11 other members of her sorority. “We also found a paintbrush still full of paint. That was pretty toxic.”
By the end of the afternoon, heaps of garbage had been piled up and seagulls had begun to circle. Rusting junk like an old, cordless vacuum, a shopping cart and a cracked leather recliner waited to be disposed of by UMD Facilities Management after the clean up. As groups waited out the rain for the awards, they warmed up with some pizza and sodas as they stood besides pile of garbage and a cleaner community.
