DeKALB – Outdoor Adventures and Campus Environmental Sustainability group held Clean our Campus – Lagoon Clean-Up Day from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday
The focus was on the East Lagoon. Six people – a mix of staff and student volunteers – worked around the lagoon, going into the streams to pick up trash and other litter around the area.
Tracy Ringle, the assistant director of Outdoor Adventures, said she and the volunteers worked at the West Lagoon and are continuing their clean-up efforts.
“We’re just cleaning up some garbage around the lagoon. We did the West Lagoon on Sunday, and today we’re doing the East Lagoon,” Ringle said.
This was the second clean-up event Outdoor Adventures and Campus Environmental Sustainability have held this semester; in the spring they will do a full clean up of the lagoons where they will bring canoes and go in the water to further clean up. Gloves, bags and reach extenders were also supplied to those who attended the event to help pick up trash.
Niara Crigler, a first-year health sciences major, explained why she decided to come to the event.
“It’s cool, like, being able to walk out here, experience a little bit of nature, get away from the smog of all the buses. And as well, I stay in Patterson. So it’s, like, I see a lot of trash around, like, that part of campus. So, like, hearing about picking up trash, heck, yeah, of course I want to pick up trash,” Crigler said. “I just love keeping campus looking nice. So why not get out here and do a little bit of that. It’d be also a nice way to, like, kind of calm down.”
Crigler mentioned she heard about the event through the Northern Star newsletter, TLDR.
Ellie Andries, a sophomore jazz studies major, said they attended for an environmental sustainability class, but also just to help the environment.
“I’m taking an environmental sustainability class on campus this semester, and one of the course requirements is that we do a certain number of on-campus and off-campus sustainability work outside of class, and we log our hours, relate it back to the course material. So I’m here partially because I care about the environment,” Andries said.
Students who are interested in Campus Environmental Sustainability can reach out to their website for more information.
