Members of the Greek community gathered yesterday afternoon for the biannual Collegetown Cleanup. The three-hour event was a joint effort between the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Association and the Multicultural Greek Letter Council. Fraternity and sorority members who participated met at The Nines and were assigned streets by Erica Furfaro ’05, vice president of university and community affairs for the Panhellenic Association.
Each chapter in the three councils was expected to send representatives to the cleanup. “We usually get about 300 volunteers during the afternoon,” Furfaro said.
“We’re going to go as far out as we have people for. We’re focusing a lot on Linden and the main streets in Collegetown and then we’re branching out up towards campus and down towards the Commons,” Furfaro added.
Chase Nielsen ’05, vice president of university and community affairs for the IFC, and Lynn Chao ’05, vice president of university and community affairs for the MGLC, also helped organize and run the event.
Collegetown student residents appreciated the effort. “The Greek presence in Collegetown is really strong, and they contribute a lot to the mess because they party a lot, so it’s great that they do this,” said Greg Sanders ’04. Non-student Collegetown residents were a target group for the project.
“We’re focusing a lot on Linden and Bryant, especially because streets like that have [non-student] residents that live at the end of those streets, so they’re in the closest proximity to student litter that’s created throughout the weekend. So we really want to focus on those areas because those are the people we really want to affect,” Furfaro said.
According to Furfaro, these residents have provided positive feedback from previous Collegetown Cleanups.
“[They] end up saying that they really like the event and it’s a great thing that we are able to do for them,” she said.
In addition to picking up garbage, the volunteers also placed door-hangers on Collegetown residences and cars that outline laws and regulations pertaining to parties. These included the new City of Ithaca noise ordinance, open container laws and penalties for serving alcohol to minors. The notices were created by the Campus-Community Coalition of Tompkins County.
“They left one on the windshield of my car. It’s good to know the details of the new noise ordinance before we throw another party,” said Jeremy Paley ’04.
Overall, the difference the cleanup made was felt by Collegetown residents — which led some to think it should be done more often.
“I think twice a year might not be enough. I think if you’re doing something for the community, they should do it more often to benefit the community,” Sanders said.
Archived article by Tony Apuzzo
Sun Senior Writer