Groups and organizations from Keene State College came together to help clean up the city of Keene on Saturday, Sept. 24.
The event “Adopt a Street” was presented by the Office of Student and Community Relations.
Students were provided gloves and trash bags to gather trash along the streets of Keene.
Each organization was assigned to a certain area or street where they collected trash.
Colton McCracken/ Equinox Staff
The collection only takes between 30 minutes to an hour, and students were able to leave their trash bags under their assigned street sign where it was later collected to be disposed.
Coordinator of Student and Community Relations Robin Picard led the students in the event to clean up Keene.
Picard said the event had a huge turnout with approximately 100 signups and over 100 participants.
“The idea is not just to clean up our streets once in awhile, but to get students to really own it, adopt it,” Picard said. She uses the term “adopt” because Adopt a Street isn’t just a onetime event.
Picard said there are monthly clean ups in the fall and two in the spring, depending on when the snow melts.
“Spring clean up is the hardest because what happens is people litter all winter and they don’t see it because the snow covers it,” Picard said.
Colton McCracken/ Equinox Staff
She said spring is when campus is “bursting with banquets and leadership dinners” so the spring clean up is a hard one.
According to Picard, after clubs and organizations have cleaned a street more than once, a sign will be put up on that street with the club or organization name.
“Neighbors obviously love it, and I think it’s great promo,” Picard said, “I think it will be great if we get to the point where when the neighbors see us out there, maybe they’ll join us.”
Picard said it’s not just students “picking up after neighbors,” but also picking up after other students. That’s where most of the trash comes from, sadly,” she said.
Psi Upsilon member Hannah Lounder said her fraternity participated in the event because they are “very active in community service.”
Colton McCracken/ Equinox Staff
“That’s a big part of what we do, that’s really the point of fraternities is community service and helping out the community,” Lounder said.
Psi Upsilon was assigned to Winchester Street for clean up. “This street is gross and it has a lot of party houses on it, so we really wanted to clean it up,” Lounder said.
Another member of Psi Upsilon Brendan Ackerman said it is important to give back to the community.
“We’re all a part of [the community] and you get what you put in,” Ackerman said. “I think that if you put in a lot to your community, then your community will give it back to you.”
Junior Kaleigh Votto said she enjoyed the event because “it [was] a way to gather groups of people to help the environment and make sure everything is picked up for the community.”
Colton McCracken/ Equinox Staff
Tau Kappa Epsilon also participated in the event.
Community service chair Simon Jablokow said he wasn’t able to participate in Adopt a Street last year, but is excited to finally be a part of it.
“It’s something that all of my brothers love doing,” he said.
Jablokow said he “just loves doing community service.”
“I love being out here and doing this; it’s just one of those thing that gives a good start to the day,” he said.
“It’s so easy,” Jablokow said. “People hate students because we throw trash everywhere, so if we go around and pick it up, it just helped everybody.”
Colton McCracken/ Equinox Staff
Any group or organization is encouraged to participate in Adopt a Street and can contact Robin Picard for more information.
“We do live in this community, and I think it’s important that we take ownership of not just the trash that we make, but we want this community to be healthy and clean,” Picard said.
“I find Keene State students to be really into the environment and ecology, this seems like a natural extension of the values that this college has,” she said.
MacKenzie Clarke can be contacted at mclarke@kscequinox.com
