Business Club Cleans Up State Road 13
Ciara Knisely
On Thursday, April 27, the College of Business Club’s Community Outreach Committee geared up with orange vests, gloves and trash bags for its biannual Highway Cleanup, clearing litter and debris from State Road 13.
The Committee, which is one of the five subcommittees of the College of Business Club, hosts the Highway Cleanup every semester and works on a section of both sides of SR 13, covering a distance of around two miles total. The event provides the Committee with an opportunity to improve the conditions of the environment while giving back to the community with their service.
The club also sponsors the highway, and members have an agreement with the Highway Department to clean a section of the highway every semester.
During this semester’s cleanup, around 20 members of the College of Business Club participated, collecting a grand total of twelve bags of trash.
“It’s a fun way to get together as a group while giving back to the community,” says junior Jordan Elick, director of the Community Outreach Committee. “We’re all about making ourselves better as well as making everyone else around us better in the community.”
Similarly, Elick also articulates that the Community Outreach Committee takes a great interest in helping the environment. “Not only does it help the school, but it helps North Manchester,” Elick said.
“The CBC runs this program, as it provides an opportunity to venture off campus and help our community,” says junior Ethan Foster, treasurer for the CBC. “It is important to me personally to attend events like highway cleanup as it is important to me to give back to the club and the community.”
Junior Blake Moore, president of the College of Business Club, elaborates on the club’s dedication to the community. “People might not necessarily notice it when they drive down the road, but to have a clean environment and make it a livable space for others goes back to our commitment to service,” he states.
The cleanup is a great way to show the public that students in the CBC care about the community while making our small town a nice, healthy place to live, according to Moore. “It’s a great way to give back and put ourselves in the image of the public,” Moore says.
Nicole Dombek, a junior on the committee e-board who also participated in the cleanup, agrees. “I think the experience gives students another perspective on how to treat the world around us,” Dombek says. “They see all the trash that is thrown out car windows and it helps them understand our impact on the environment.”
Moore added: “The biggest thing for us as a club is to try to keep with Manchester University’s mission of service.”
However, students describe the sense of community they also develop within the CBC while participating in events such as the Highway Cleanup.
“I think the biggest thing for our committee is to service our students in a way that allows them to make leaps and gains in their own volunteerism,” Moore says.
As he explains, when students break into groups to begin cleaning the highway, they may meet other students that they never have before, building their sense of community even more. “We throw these events so that students have the ability to develop themselves and grow personally,” Moore says.
As for next semester’s cleanup, the committee and the event’s participants plan to sort the litter into trash and recycling, as the Highway Department suggested to them, to continue to better their program, according to Elick.