Students helps clean up Gompers Park

Almost 50 students and faculty members picked up debris in areas that were completely under water only three weeks ago.

As part of Northeastern Illinois University's Green Week, The Student Activities Office organized a volunteer clean up event at Gompers Park on Friday, Oct. 3. Participating students and faculty members walked around the park armed with gloves, plastic bags and pick-up tools on a mission to rid the park of garbage. Their efforts were rewarded with free Jimmy John's box lunches and an informational nature walk led by Jim Macdonald, the Volunteer Steward of Gompers Park and a former NEIU faculty member.

"When you get 40 to 50 students here it does more work in a half a day then we can do with our volunteers in a month so this is really wonderful," said Macdonald.

Many of the students at the event are taking biology with NEIU's Professor Jennifer Slate. Slate is the person who suggested Gompers Park as a possible volunteer site.

Slate, who regularly brings students to Gompers Park to collect samples, said she always gives her students trash bags when they are collecting samples so they can help clean up as they go.

"There's always a lot of trash here," said Slate of Gompers Park. "This is a very heavily used park and if people didn't pick up the trash regularly it would just be awful."

Although Slate offered extra credit as an added incentive for her students to volunteer, that's not the only reason they helped clean up.

"I don't like going to places and seeing garbage everywhere so I thought I'd just help make a difference," said Dean Matthopoulos, a freshman student of Slate's.

As the volunteers made their way around the wetland and lagoon areas of the park they could see just how deep the flood waters were from September's heavy rainstorm.

"I think being here and seeing the water level of the flood is really startling," said Kimberly Murphy, a senior at NEIU and President of Theta Chi Omega. "Also a lot of things traveled from the river so I think there's a lot of additional garbage because of the flood and what it carried over here."

The volunteers found everything from shoes to an oar, but the most popular pieces of garbage happened to be beer cans and bottles.

"I don't think any of that's surprising, unfortunately," said Murphy.