Students of University of Wisconsin – La Crosse got together on Thursday, March 22^rd to clean up trash around campus. The event entitled, “Campus Clean Up” was sponsored by the Recreational Eagle Center. The main goal of Campus Clean Up was “to keep our community of students engaged and active while making a positive impact on the campus community as a whole” as quoted by Marina Garcia, a graduate assistant for the REC and the frontrunner for the event.

Garcia added, “It’s a wonderful event to bring people together and enjoy the spring weather. This is the first campus clean up but so far it has been successful, and we will definitely do it again in the future.”

Megan Klopp, an event coordinator at the REC discussed the incentives involved with the event. Klopp said, “We have sponsored products by Pepsi and Adidas for students to fill out raffle tickets to win. I feel like this has definitely been successful, we were nervous at first but there has been a huge turnout.”

Many students in clubs such as Love Your Melon volunteered to fulfill their service hours. Members of Love Your Melon, Megan Scoville and Cassidy Mason commented on their experience at the event.

Scoville stated, “I am excited that Love Your Melon encourages events such as this one so I can represent my organization and have fun.”

Mason added, “This challenges students to do something for the cause and come out and help.”

Scoville and Mason were not the only students impacted by the event, over forty students showed up to help clean the campus that we eagles care about deeply. Two other students, Torrie Stencel and Nola Fossey discussed how the clean-up made them feel about environmental issues.

Stencel began, “Looking around campus and seeing all of the litter is painful. The garbage makes a big impact on the campus itself but the environment as a whole.”

Mason agreed and added, “She’s right [Stencel], I notice all of the garbage/litter I did not see while going to class but taking the time to clean up the walkways I use the most showed me that we need to be more responsible with our environment.”

For future events, Klopp said to look out for “Just for the Health” an interactive event with mental health discussion, diet, etc, and less of a focus on purely physical health. After that, there will be “Battleship” between club sports in Mitchell Hall, “Stress Busters” during finals week and more.

Garcia concluded, “We really wanted to have a service event this spring that students could participate it. We picked up around 10 bags of garbage that was scattered across campus.” Campus Clean up combined service work and physical activity to create an impactful atmosphere that recognized environmental concerns as well as student concerns to make a difference.