Your Student Association and campus community help clean up Durham College

Students clean up in front of the Student Centre on April 25 as part of a community cleanup effort to beautify the Oshawa campus and surrounding neighbourhood.

From left to right: Brad Bartlett and Ian Bloomfield, University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) students; Anthony Boland, president, The Student Association (SA); Nicole Robichaud, former vice-president, Internal, The SA; and Amy England, former president, The SA.

The Student Association (SA) and students from across campus rolled up their sleeves and got to work on April 24, picking up trash from around the campus as part of a community cleanup to beautify Durham College and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), as well as the surrounding neighbourhood.

Organized by The Student Association, the event targeted the campus as well as areas near Dalhousie Crescent, Niagara Drive and Walreg Drive. Faculty and students managed to fill more than a dozen bags with garbage.

“The weather was nice and the sun was shining, and we had a barbeque once it was over,” said Anthony Boland, president, The SA. “Members of the community were genuinely happy to see us in their neighbourhoods. It was great to see students interacting with homeowners.”

Boland noted that the day out, despite the fun, was as much a goodwill mission as it was good for the environment.

“It’s important to show we have a commitment to sustainability and the environment,” said Boland. “We truly believe that contributing to the community cleanup shows we value our citizenship here. It’s all about being a good neighbour.”

As an incentive to gather volunteers, The SA offered an extra $200 to any student club that brought out at least five members. There are more than 70 on-campus clubs composed of students from Durham College, UOIT and Trent in Oshawa.

Though the cleanup is an annual event held by The SA, this year’s garbage pickup coincided with a larger week-long initiative in the City of Oshawa as part of Pitch-In Canada. The city provided free garbage bags and gloves to volunteers and anyone else looking to tidy the community.