Journalism senior Brett Runyan cleans up the front yard of a house for the Community Relations Coalition. Runyan also is an intern with the CRC, which works to keep positive relationships between students and East Lansing residents.
Picking up a whole neighborhood worth of trash might not be the ideal activity for many people on a Sunday morning, but some community-minded students were up early doing just that.
Almost 20 students and residents met at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the East Lansing Police Department to take part in a neighborhood cleanup sponsored by the Community Relations Coalition.
Ali Barlow, a student affairs and administration graduate student and CRC intern coordinator who organized the event, said its benefits were twofold.
“I think (the neighborhood cleanup) has two purposes: One is clearly to get the garbage out of the streets and to make the neighborhood a nicer place, and then the second is to show that students can go out there and look after each other and make sure that we’re all being good neighbors in general,” she said.
Participants split into five groups targeting East Lansing’s heavily student-populated areas, stretching from Oakhill Avenue eastward to Gunson Street.
One of the volunteers, Allison Drake, said the neighborhood cleanup contributes to what she sees as CRC’s overall goal.
“(The CRC) is trying to build positive relationships between neighbors, be it students to students or students and long-term residents,” the communications and public relations senior said.
Charles Street resident Mara Ferguson was not part of the cleanup, but said she was supportive of the CRC’s efforts.
“I think it’s cool that they go and pick up trash because there’s so many people that just don’t even think about it and they just throw their trash wherever,” the apparel and textile design senior said. “It shows the responsibility of us as students to go around and pick up our own trash because I’m sure the (long-term residents) who live in the neighborhoods around here don’t appreciate our party garbage.”
Fourteen large bags of trash were collected, containing empty cups, broken bottles and other garbage. The city’s Department of Public Welfare disposed of the trash.
Barlow said the CRC has been sponsoring neighborhood cleanups for about five years and conducts several throughout the year, usually after what can be considered “big events.” Other cleanups have been after the Notre Dame football game earlier this year and last spring following Cedar Fest.
“I think students in general get a bad rap for the garbage and the partying,” Barlow said. “But when you show that there are students who want to go out and help make things better, it has a big impact.”
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