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| My Twin Sister and I at The Big Event. Picture by Amanda Frimpong. |
In the initial process of debating what kind of service project that I wanted to do, I realize that my horizon has been expanded over a completely new range of studies. I began to explore new organizations and services that were all about serving and giving back to the community and to our planet Earth and humanity. Here at UNT, I signed up to become a Big Event Site Leader. “The Big Event”, is a nationally recognized community service project that was held at UNT for the first time in March. Volunteers from more than 100 student organizations at UNT came out to perform three to four hours of service in Denton County and surrounding cities. Some of the service projects include gardening, cleaning, painting, working with senior citizens and assisting children at local schools and development centers. With more than 2,000 student volunteers registered to participate, The Big Event is expected be the largest student-run community service project ever at UNT. I saw this event as an opportunity for me to get involved in my community! Preparing for this project, I did not know what to expect. I had only one objective; to make a difference and have fun doing it. A memo was attached to the email, reminding us to wear old clothing, jeans, and a good pair of “down right getting dirty” shoes. On the day of the event, I showed up at 8:00 am as scheduled, prep in the exact manner as recommended, and was ready for the unexpected. Matters took a turn for the worse, when I found out that I was going to be assigning management over another group. My group which was made up of mostly of the “World Echo’s Organization”, was assigned the task of cleaning and picking up trash around UNT’s campus. Good thing I brought my “getting dirty” shoes!
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| UNT The Big Event 2011. Picture by Brittany Echols. |
As I started to clean up around campus, I noticed immediately that there was a wide variety of food wrappers and candy wrappers around campus. Not including the tons of cigarettes butts everywhere. In that moment I realized that, everyone wants a nice campus, and here at UNT, we “mean green”, however when does it come down to the reality of us carrying out that “mean green” action. I could actually see for myself, what us as students were doing to our campus, “trashing” it up. In recent in class readings and videos, we discussed the topic of pollution and how it affects everyone around the globe. Students dropping trash around campus is no different from big business dumping tons of pollution in landfills, neighborhoods and even miles away in another country. In addition, someone is being left up to the task of picking up behind him or her, or better yet nature and the environment suffering from his or her waste. Then I saw the bigger picture and noticed trashcans everywhere around campus. This proposed the fact that there is a alternative to just dumping trash where ever you choose, but instead placing it were trash properly goes for disposal. Just like in Higgins explains in his passage “Moreover, when environmental pollution is relegated to such appropriate socially polluted spaces, the environmental pollution is really “in its place” and therefore is not as noticeable as an anomaly or as an aberrant thing; it is relatively invisible in its physical and cultural separation from predominantly white, elite centers of power. By the same token, the more “socially polluted” the place, the more appropriate it is to direct environmental pollution to that place”. From this service learning project, I was able to connect more with my surrounding campus and evaluate myself as a student, and I realize that every little act has a counteract. If we do not take responsibility and clean up our mess, someone has to do it, this not only destroys everyone but nature as well. Most importantly I learned one can really have a awesome time picking up liter and putting it in its rightful place, even if no one has to ask, or is watching.
By Briana Echols
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