President Tom Buchanan is granting a one-hour work release for those who are interested in participating in the campus cleanup Thursday.
The cleanup will be from 12 to 3 p.m. Thursday at Simpson’s Plaza and those who participate will receive a Campus Sustainability water bottle.
“There will be a volunteer organizing station in Simpson’s Plaza throughout this time. People can volunteer for whatever time they can spare between 12 and 3,” Amy Bey, who is organizing the event, said. “No need to sign up ahead of time, just show up. President Buchanan is granting one hour of work release time for staff and faculty to participate in the clean-up.”
ECO Council, the Service Leadership and Community Engagement office, the Campus Sustainability Committee and the President’s Office are sponsoring the cleanup as part of Earth Day.
Earth Day was enacted on April 22, 1970 and was a result of the oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. The first Earth Day led to the passages of several environmental acts including the Endangered Species, Clean Water and Clean Air acts.
Since 1970, people have taken part in various events recognizing Earth Day including turning the lights off for at least an hour to reduce energy and cleaning up trash, much like this campus cleanup event.
At Thursday’s event, volunteers will have trash bags to put garbage in and an electric truck and recycle-cycles will come around to pick up the bags as they fill up. There is still plenty of room for people to ride the recycle-cycles to pick up the trash. Those interested in riding the recycle-cycles can contact Bey at alittle2@uwyo.edu.
This will be the last campus cleanup event for this semester, but the university usually keeps the grounds pretty clean, Bey says.
“There is a possibility for one in the fall, but a lot of routine campus clean-up is done by the UW grounds attendants and the Adopt-the-Campus program,” Bey said.
Adopt-the-Campus is a program where RSOs can “adopt” specific areas of campus to keep clean throughout the year. Those interested in participating in the Adopt-the-Campus program can contact ASUW chief-of-staff Branden Hayes at asuwexc2@uwyo.edu.
