Donned in blue shirts, shorts and gloves, a handful of Mississippi State University students walked side-by-side through the streets of the Cotton District Monday morning, plastic bags in hand, their eyes peeled for garbage and recyclables. Another group traversed the downtown area with the same goal in mind: to rid the streets of litter.
The students, many of whom are freshman, were part of Mississippi State University”s Service DAWGS program. The program, which stands for “Donating A Wonderful Gift of Service,” allows students, faculty and other volunteers to take part in projects on campus and throughout the region.
The garbage pickup Monday morning was just one phase of Service Dawgs” citywide cleanup effort. One team worked on a new Habitat for Humanity house, while another painted at the Oktibbeha County Humane Society. There were groups performing groundskeeping work at places like Camp Seminole and the Aiken Village preschool, while others were painting and washing cars at Ability Works. One group even rode around the MSU campus in search of potholes.
“You name it, we were there,” faculty adviser April Heiselt said.
More than 200 volunteers showed up for the event and were split into 18 teams. Adam Rhoades, a freshman from Diamondhead, was one of the volunteers helping pick up trash and recyclables from the streets of the Cotton District.
“I like the feeling of giving back to the community,” Rhoades said. “I”m going to be here for the next five years, so I just wanted to contribute to what I hope is a good stay here.”
Nisreen Cain, founder of Green Starkville, helped organize the garbage pickup, along with the city”s Sanitation Department, Starkville Recycling, the university and the Greater Starkville Development Partnership. The city”s sanitation department picked up the bags of trash volunteers left on the curb while Starkville Recycling picked up recyclables the volunteers placed in separate bags.
“Basically, we want to open a bridge between the Partnership, the city and the university,” Cain said. “We have a lot of potential with students at the university. There are a lot of potential volunteers out there. We”re just trying to establish these relationships and get these students involved.”
The cleanup was the second year in a row Service DAWGS have come out in force. It also was the second time in the past week that a group of volunteers made an effort to pick up trash in the city.
An alumni group from the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity picked up trash Saturday along the railroad tracks under the University Drive bridge, between the Starkville Fire Department”s facility and Stromboli”s.
Another cleanup, dubbed the “Get Swept Up” campaign, is scheduled for Sept. 2. The Greater Starkville Development Partnership is organizing the Get Swept Up campaign. For more information, call the Partnership office at 323-3322.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
