» By Myranda Harrison
Staff Writer

In honor of Earth Day, students, faculty and members of the Campus Activities Committee planted flowers and helped with landscaping around the APSU campus Thursday, April 26.

Those participating were either solo volunteers or involved in a campus affiliated group such as the various APSU sororities and fraternities.

Everyone met in the UC Plaza where they were assigned their group number and location in order to begin planting. Some of the places on campus that received new flowers include the new freshmen dorm Castle Heights, the Foy Fitness center, Harned Hall, and the Felix Woodward Library. Lindsey Jackson, the Landscape Manager for APSU was there to monitor, help and assist any group with landscape and planting matters.

Before getting dirty though, everyone received a free T-shirt and a bright red water bottle as part of their reward for participating. Another reward was a “lottery” drawing that involved winning a gift card to a local restaurant.
Sara Gotcher, professor in the theater department, served as the events emcee. She explained that the first year this event was organized and held was after the infamous tornado in 1999 that destroyed part of the campus.

She said this is a good way of ensuring that everything is preserved and kept up.

“When you look around the campus you see the hard work that was put in. I would love to do this again,” Gotcher said.

While the participants checked in, President Tim Hall stopped by to offer some encouraging words about the importance of preserving our campus. He highlighted the number of people that are constantly telling him how gorgeous APSU’s campus is and how amazed they are with the upkeep of it. He noted how essential it is to have campus organizations like these to help keep APSU beautiful.

“Thank you for what you’re doing” Hall said. “It makes a big difference.”

Professor Lindsey Szramek of the geology department said this is her first year on the Campus Activities Committee and she thinks it was very successful given the fact that the event had to be delayed due to rain.

“Not as many people that signed up showed up due to the event having to be delayed,” Szramek said. “But, despite that, most of all the flowers got planted and the ones that didn’t get planted, got planted the next day.”

In return for those who planted flowers around campus, ice cream treats courtesy of the Dairy Queen were provided.

The volunteer event was a great opportunity for students, faculty and staff to celebrate Earth Day and to demonstrate pride in APSU’s campus.