Cans littering yards and sidewalks have become a familiar sign indicating the passage of Fake Patty’s Day in Kent.
For the second year in a row, Undergraduate Student Government and Community Engaged Learning partnered Sunday to clean up the trash students left behind.
“There are a lot of grounds people,” said Cassidy Hall, director of student advancement for USG. “We don’t need to add more to their jobs.”
More than 50 volunteers descended on campus, fraternity row and downtown with grabbers and trash bags in hand. Altogether, they anticipated collecting at least 30 bags of trash, beating the previous year’s 25 bags.
Craig Berger, associate director of CEL, flexed some on-the-spot garbage math: “Each bag holds 15 pounds, multiply that by 30 and we have 450 pounds of trash.”
Eden Clow, who also participated in the group’s Halloween efforts, drove from Cleveland to be a part of the clean-up. He started at 1:30 p.m. and filled two bags before 3 p.m.
Clow said cans and vapes make up most of the trash. The drinks of choice this year? Coors Light and fruit punch BeatBox, by his estimate.
USG purchased all the supplies for the clean-up, and the two groups provided Dunkin’ for volunteers. It is a sustainable event that Hall said she hopes her successor carries on.
“It’s critical to keep this area beautiful,” she said. “We take it for granted.”
Alton Northup is news director. Contact him at [email protected].
