Two large garbage bags of trash disappeared from the roadside and the banks of the campus pond on April 12, thanks to the efforts of six students earning community service credit.

They were joined by two leaders from Student Life and the two journalism students were working on their last story assignment.

One volunteer was Warapat Krasaetanont, an international student who comes from Thailand. She said she has been learning art at OCCC. She signed up for this event because it was a course requirement and she earned extra credit.

But she said it is more about getting inspiration through the different college experiences.

“I enjoyed this event,” Krasaetanont said.

The Adopt-a-Street service day started at 9 a.m. in Student Life, where the students joined the staff leaders.

The group left the Student Life office and went to the north entrance of the college. Team leaders were Jack Otwell and Coordinator of Student Life Theresa Shaklee.

Each student got a garbage bag and the group was one short.

Otwell and Shaklee shared the last bag and each of them held one side of the bag.

“This is a team hold,” Otwell said, laughing.

Otwell said, “If people tell you [that you] cannot do this (picking up trash on the street), you just tell them yes I can, because here is OCCC.”

During the work, this reporter asked if Adopt-a-Street events happened once a week. Shaklee said this event is only once a semester.

She said different service learning activities during the semester.

The team members walked along Southwest 74th Street and May Avenue but there was not really too much trash to pick up.

At the small lake on campus, there was a lot of trash near the water. The group worked together and all of people got half a bag of trophy (aka trash).

The event lasted about two hours and time went fast when the volunteers concentrated on work. In the end they got about one and a half garbage bags of trash in total.

“We did a good job today,” Shaklee said.

This event gave students a different college experience that was meaningful for the OCCC. Everyone looked happy when they finished the job and left the Student Life office.

Student Life supports students’ pursuit of a successful college experience, Shaklee said.

Adopt-a-Street is an on-campus event for students to earn community-service credit hours and enjoy campus life.

For more information about service learning, contact studentlife@occc.edu.