Volunteers' clean up efforts were a success
In the future, event coordinators hope for increased student involvement.
April 15, 2008
Columbia resident Sarah Ridenhour and her husband Stephen Colony collect litter Saturday on College Avenue as a part of Cleanup Columbia. This year’s effort included 1,900 volunteers who picked up trash all over Columbia.
Student groups helped the city do a little spring cleaning on Saturday at the 12th annual Cleanup Columbia event.
Event coordinators assigned 46 cleanup groups to pick up garbage at various locations around the city.
Leigh Britt, City of Columbia Volunteer Services Coordinator, said in a news release the event attracted about 1,200 volunteers. The release stated that volunteers picked up 1,548 bags of trash.
Britt said out of the nearly 2,000 people that originally signed up for the event, about 7 percent were MU students.
Sigma Phi Lambda sorority secretary Julie Miller said despite the weather and the labor, members of the sorority who volunteered were in good spirits.
“No matter what you’re doing, it brings a lot of people together,” Miller said. “Participation from the City of Columbia is good because you know the whole community is pulling together.”
Miller said the sorority doesn’t ordinarily take part in volunteer efforts that deal with environmental issues, but the organization has discussed taking on similar efforts, such as the Adopt A Highway program.
Volunteers from the sorority picked up trash along Stadium Boulevard, and Miller said the group worked for about two hours and picked up 34 bags of trash.
Students from the MU Asian Affairs Center worked with the Karis Community Church of Columbia to remove graffiti from downtown buildings.
Asian Affairs Center program assistant Brad Jacobson said the event was a great cause and volunteers from the organization enjoyed taking part in the event, but the organization had hoped for more student interaction.
“We hoped there would be interaction between the international students and the Americans, but we were partially successful,” Jacobsen said.
Mizzou Engineering Ambassadors co-president Julie Fitzler said her group of 11 volunteers enjoyed the event and picked up 28 bags of trash from Old 63.
She said they would have enjoyed it more if the weather had been more accommodating.
Fitzler said, in regard to the physical labor involved with the effort, she could understand how older volunteers might have had difficulties.
“After a while I learned to bend my knees,” Fitzler said.
Britt said despite the weather, event coordinators were pleased with the turnout to the event.
“They didn’t let the weather get the best of them,” Britt said. “I’m so glad people went out and did it.”
Britt said next year Volunteer Services would consider holding the event later in the year to increase the probability of warmer weather. She said the organization would likely hold the event at roughly the same point in the calendar next year to make sure students in Columbia are able to volunteer.
Britt said efforts by college students were integral in the event because of their flexible schedules and physical agility.
Mayor Darwin Hindman, who volunteered with a group of Boy Scouts picking up trash, said the effort made a big difference.
“It’s shocking to think of how many people think of outside their window as an ashtray or a big dump,” Hindman said.
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