Saturday, April 16, Students for Sustainability (SFS) kicked off Earth Week with the project Hands Helping Lands by cleaning up the La Crosse County Landfill located just off State Street in Onalaska! This event, which we hope to make an annual project included thirty-three volunteers from SFS, Alpha Phi, Delta Sigma Phi and environmental studies students, as well as friends and family. As winter turns to spring, the snow covering the landfill melts down and with it, loosens trash that blows all around the property. Volunteers gathered to pick up this discarded trash and return it to where it belonged. As the organizer of the event I would like to extend my gratitude to all of the volunteers that showed up, cleaned up, and enjoyed the pizza party afterwards! I would also like to thank Hank Koch and Nick Nichols for welcoming volunteers on the site and for supplying the pizzas! These volunteers collected thirty-eight, fifty-gallon trash bags full of garbage that had spread across four different sections of the landfill! If you or your club is looking to get involved with this event next year or other community based projects, contact the SFS outreach coordinator, Shelby Jacobson at [email protected]. For other outreach, or for more information on the landfill and all it does for the community, visit their website at http://www.co.la-crosse.wi.us/SolidWaste/.

Special thanks to everyone who participated in any of the Earth Week events on campus or the Earth Fair last Sunday at Myrick park. When a community gets together to celebrate and protect our Earth, amazing things can happen.

SFS meetings are Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Centennial Hall in Room 2211.