EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) — The University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire homecoming may be over, but clean-up is under way after two days of festivities.
On Sunday afternoon, dozens of students equipped with trash bags met and were assigned blocks in the Randall park neighborhood.
According to Nicole Rindone of the UWEC Events and Marketing Department, this annual event known as Adopt-a-Block, helps bridge the gap between student life and the community.
“They’re kind of cleaning up after their fellow student after some of the mess that is made to help the community and make them feel like they are part of this area as well as the students,” Rindone said.
Several students that participated, say it feels good to help the community and clean up after some of the mess that their fellow students made.
“It’s really awesome to see students give back to the community they live in and sometimes abuse and don’t really recognize it,” said UWEC Student Senator and Delta Sigma Phi fraternity member, Austin Gulbrandson.
Another member of Delta Sigma Phi, Nick Spiess, says the clean-up efforts give students the opportunity to come together in support of the community.
“It feels pretty great especially to kind of get everyone together, get different organizations on campus and really come together as a community to make this a better place,” Speiss said.
Rindone said the student organizations that participate get points for helping cleanup that goes towards the homecoming sweepstakes.
“So by cleaning up more areas and cleaning up more trash, they get more points and they can win special prizes,” she said. “So there is something in it for them, but there is a ton in it for the community.”
According to organizers, Adopt-a-Block has been a long standing tradition between the university and the community dating back almost 40 years.
Organizers say students collected more than 30 bags of trash.
