Students in blue T-shirts littered the Hintz Family Alumni Center Saturday morning in preparation to clean up Penn State.
The third annual Spring UP was held Saturday morning as part of the We Are Campaign. Spring UP is a day of community service during which students, alumni and residents come together to beautify the campus before Blue and White weekend. A 30-student planning committee organized the event.
The event was held in two sessions, one from 9 a.m. to noon and the other from noon to 3 p.m. Despite the chilly weather and early start, 550 students participated between both sessions, a jump from the 80 who participated the first year and the 120 the second year. These 550 students were separated into 39 groups, each with a team leader who went out to paint park benches and poles and plant trees
Some students were bussed to different locations and others were taken outside and given trash bags.
"Some activities include planting trees, mulching and picking up litter," said Jackie Grandel (junior-civil engineering), the director of Spring UP.
These activities are in an effort to strengthen relationships within the community and beautify the campus, Grandel said.
Stephen Suffian (freshman-electrical engineering) acted as a team leader for Saturday's event. Suffian's group was assigned to clean up litter in various places around campus.
"[It's] good timing. Spring; right before Blue and White weekend; and it makes campus nicer for the alumni," Suffian said.
Suffian's group mates, Prashant Chahwala (junior-life sciences), Nehal Kuntilal Patel (freshman-premedicine), Raghav Yadav (freshman-finance) and Joshua Perincheril (freshman-finance), all said they were having a good time.
"It's for a good cause," Chahwala added.
Some students participated in the event because they wanted to help out; others were required to participate either for a class or seminar.
Group three had the duty of mulching a patch of land across from the HUB lawn. Maha Shama (freshman-finance) and Becca Welch (freshman-finance) were both hard at work spreading out the mulch that their group mates dumped in front of them. Both of the girls participated because it was required for their freshman seminar. "We like to spruce up our campus," Shama said.
"But it's hard on a Saturday morning," Welch added before Shama could finish her sentence.
Gina Malagoli (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) was happy to participate and had volunteered to work both sessions. Her group was responsible for staining the poles that line the walkways across campus.
"It's a great idea and the turnout looked good," Malagoli said.
Terry Brungart, landscape group leader, is an employee of Penn State and was helping to set up activities. Brungart worked with Spring UP last year when it only had 120 volunteers. "[It] gets cumbersome to organize but it's a good thing that people are interested in," Brungart said.
