The Greek Community cleaned the streets of Collegetown yesterday in the bi-annual “Collegetown Clean-Up” event. For three hours, members of Cornell’s fraternities and sororities helped rid trash from the entire Collegetown area.
Collegetown Clean-Up is one of the largest community service activities organized by the three Greek councils.
Kristen Rich, vice president of university and community relations for the Panhellenic Association, Rick Griffith, vice president of university and community relations for the InterFraternity Council, and Nicole Clark, vice president of university and community relations for the Multicultural Greek Letter Council helped organize the event.
Volunteers from the Greek community met at The Nines on College Avenue on Sunday to receive bags for the garbage collection.
“This is just one of the ways that the Greek system is trying to give back to the community in which we live,” said Jonathan Feldman, director of university and community relations for the InterFraternity council.
“We’d love to collect as much garbage off the streets as possible,” Feldman said. “It’s nice to show that we do care about where we live,” Feldman said. “It is one of our biggest events that we hold every semester. We always have a great turnout and it’s nice to see our chapters getting involved.”
Every Panhellenic Association chapter was required to attend. All chapters from the InterFraternity Council and Multicultural Greek Letter Council were invited to participate as well.
“The local business owners in Collegetown have said in the past that we don’t leave the area in the best shape all of the time, especially on weekends. We want to give back to them, and Collegetown Clean-Up is a great way to do so,” Feldman said.
“At the event we had approximately one hundred people representing all three of the councils who contributed to picking up over 60 bags of trash from the local Collegetown community,” he added.
Feldman noted that last spring approximately 70 trash bags were collected from the efforts.
“The Greek chapters are avid supporters of the Collegetown area as residents, patrons, and frequent visitors. It is our hope that events such as Collegetown Clean-Up further strengthen our relationship with the community,” he said.
“Collegetown definitely needs a lot of cleaning, especially on a Sunday morning. It’s a good way for the Greek system to get out and show how we can help the community,” said Robyn Bochner ’07, sister of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority.
“We want to let the people of Ithaca know that we do appreciate where we live,” Bochner said. “It’s nice that we helped clean the streets to show that we like living here and respect the area.”
Archived article by Allison Markowitz
Sun Staff Writer