By Mike Vitron
Associate Editor
It is easy to take our beautiful, 500-acre campus, tucked into the middle of the Enchanted Mountains, for granted. However, several students are doing their part to help beautify their campus.
On Earth Day, April 22, the Center for Community Engagement’s First Year Service Program (FYSP) will assist maintenance crews in cleaning up various spots around campus.
“The maintenance department expressed a need for more help with campus clean up, and FYSP saw it as an opportunity to give back,” Erica Fleischman Roethel, FYSP coordinator, said.
Sophomore Cody Clifford, who organized the event, said he got the idea from a monthly neighborhood clean-up he organized in high school. He, and 15 other FYSP students, participated in International Service Day on March 31. The 15 students pick up trash around campus, put recycle bins together and painted janitorial closets in Plassmann Hall.
Clifford said he expects all 35 students involved in the FYSP to participate in the Earth Day clean-up, and he welcomes any other student on campus to help out.
“I think it’s important to give back to the Bonaventure community because it not only makes a lasting impact on the community, but it reflects our Franciscan values,” he said.
“It allows the students to give back to the institution that taught them their Franciscan values and ideals, Fleischman Roethel said.
The First Year Service Program gives freshmen the opportunity to engage in a variety of service opportunities in the local community and on campus, Fleischman Roethel said. The students work in groups that are lead by upperclassmen leaders/mentors.
Anyone interested in participating in the Earth Day clean-up can contact Cody Clifford at cliffocj10@bonaventure.edu or Fleischman Roethel at fleiscea10@bonaventure.edu
Students are welcome to participate as little or as much as they would like from noon till 3 p.m. on the day of the event.
vitronmj@bonaventure.edu
