By HAYLEE BATES
Student Reporter
Northwestern hosted a boulevard cleanup project March 25.
Service and Learning Coordinator Theresa Lemke said 12 to 15 individuals, including students and faculty, picked up trash in two areas on the boulevard. There were student representatives from football, Alpha Sigma Alpha and volunteers not associated with a specific campus organization. Dean of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Calleb Mosburg, Dean of the School of Professional Studies Bo Hannaford and Lemke were the faculty who participated.
The group split into two smaller groups and covered an area by the Lite N Nite convenience store on the west side of town and another area between El Maya and Wal-Mart on the east side of town.
Alpha Sigma Alpha representative Arasely Quintana said, “It is a good way to interact with other students as well as faculty and work as a team.”
The project is part of Keep Oklahoma Beautiful. It is sponsored by Devon Energy and the grant is sponsored by OGE Energy Corp. The grant allowed funding to purchase supplies for the project.
Together the groups cleaned a total of two miles and volunteered a total of two hours. Quintana said, “You do not realize how much trash is on the side of the road until you see how many bags of trash you gathered in a short amount of time. You also do not realize how much you can do for the community.”
The goal is to expand the project in years to come. Lemke said, “I am hoping that the project expands to the point that we can take a full day to better different parts of our community. I would like to help paint community members’ houses, remove unwanted shrubbery and expand the trash cleanup to other parts of town.” The plan is to schedule a cleanup project more than once a year. Lemke is considering a seasonal cleanup throughout the school year.
Quintana said, “I encourage everyone to participate in a cleanup project”
Lemke said, “The purpose of this project is to get students involved with the community. We even had a woman stop and offer to donate to the organization that was picking up the trash on the side of the road. It showed how much the community appreciated the work we were doing, so I think the project was very successful and the university got recognition for its hard work.”
Lemke encourages all students to contact her and volunteer to participate in the next project, or students can contact her to schedule a day to clean up with their organization. Email her at tmlemke@nwosu.edu or call 580-327-8134.
Lemke said, “I want to thank all of the students and faculty that participated in the cleanup project, and I hope that after this project more students will get involved and help better the community that provides so much for them.”