Here are two groups of the many who helped clean up on Saturday, April 19 weekend. The UMD Women’s Soccer Club and UMD’s Beta Lambda Psi. Here they are at Portland Square.Photos by Molly Causse
By Molly CausseUMD Better Neighbors
Saturday, April 19, the Saturday before Earth Day was pretty rainy, wet, windy, and cold! I doubted that many would show up to spend a few hours cleaning up the city! To my excitement, about 90 UMD students showed up! This is the best turnout yet of any Better Neighbors City Clean-up! On top of that, there were also community members who showed up to help clean! It was wonderful to see students and community members working together to make a difference in the community! I have gotten emails from community members saying that they noticed the Hillside area looks a lot cleaner, they were also very thankful to all the students who helped out.
Several UMD organizations participated, including athletic teams, fraternities and sororities, as well as other student groups.
The UMD Women’s Soccer team came again this year, as well as the UMD Women’s Basketball and Volleyball teams. There was also representation from Alpha Phi Omega (who won the prize for most garbage collected by any group or team), Beta Lambda Psi (who won the prize for second most garbage collected by any group or team), Pre-Dental Club, Chi Alpha, Lets Go Green, Newman Catholic Campus Ministry, Student Association, and the Communication Club. Individual students also participated and brought friends to help contribute and clean up garbage.
Two awards were given. The first award was for “Best Found Garbage Art” which was won by a member of the UMD Volleyball Team for finding a child’s diary which had pictures drawn by a child inside.
The other award was for “Object Which Improved the Campus Area Most By Being Removed,” this object was found by a member of the UMD Basketball who found a really large nail bed.
UMD Facilities Management donated gloves, bags, and a garbage truck for the event.
