Students and families from the ICT area marched down the RiverWalk, donned with blue gloves, white trash bags and grabber tools, spending a Saturday morning picking up debris along the river.
Wichita Clean Streams is a monthly event where volunteers clean up trash in local bodies of water. The location changes every month depending on the needs of the community.
Wichita State’s Community Service Board partnered with the Wichita RiverWalk Cleanup Crew to help clean the area around the Arkansas and Little Arkansas River.
Matthew Phan, mechanical engineering sophomore and vice president of membership of the Community Service Board, said that Wichita Clean Streams is one of his favorite events – he’s attended it almost every time they’ve held it.
“What really draws me in is being able to clean up the river and seeing the progress we made,” Phan said. “I also love having fresh air in the morning.”
The Community Service Board is largely student-led. Loren Belew, adviser of the Community School Board, praised her students’ independence.
“They facilitate the volunteer events, they plan them, they communicate with their volunteers and they just do a great job,” Belew said. “I think one of the most rewarding parts of my job is seeing my student leaders like the volunteer events and plan events and become leaders … among their students and within the community.”
Annie Nguyen and Rachel Edwards, a pair of students volunteering together, acknowledged the accessibility of the event, stating they didn’t need any specialized skills or training, just a few hours out of their day.
Nguyen, a junior biochemistry major who recently joined the Community Service Board, said it was her first event with the organization. Edwards, a freshman psychology major, said she was there for a class – Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare – and that she needed 15 volunteer hours over the semester.
There were around 20 volunteers, half from WSU and the other half from the community.
Belew offered advice for students interested in fitting volunteering into their schedule.
“It can just be an hour or two on a Saturday morning or, you know, something that’s important to them, that means something to them and doing what’s best for them,” Belew said.
