Volunteers Make Eastern Campus Sparkle

Faculty and staff volunteers recently spent a sunny April afternoon planting, weeding and watering the campus landscaping, all part of EWU’s third annual “Spring into Action: Campus Clean-up Day.”

Erin Endres, Eastern’s climate resilience specialist, is one of the event’s organizers. She says the day’s goal, other than the obvious tidying up, is to move the campus toward becoming a more sustainable home for native plants. She hopes to do this by raising awareness of composting, recycling initiatives and sustainability basics such as sound soil science.

“I’m just trying to show that you don’t have to let ‘perfect be the enemy of good,’” Endres says. Many people see sustainability as an all or nothing commitment, she says. But it doesn’t have to be that way. While major lifestyle changes — like becoming vegan or ditching fast fashion — are great, even just doing a little bit to help out, such as planting some seeds around Arévalo Mall, can make a big difference in the environment and our connection to it.

Endres says that Eastern events like the spring clean-up and the ongoing Prairie Restoration Project are perfect for fostering support and involvement from the university community.

Carl Combs, a veteran volunteer of Campus Clean-up Day, is all-in on his participation, even bringing his own gardening equipment to help out. “I have a blower, trimmer, rakes and other things, because I’ve learned from past years that certain tools can really help,” he said.

Combs, who earned a bachelor’s degree at Eastern in 1988, now works as Eastern’s IT Support Services supervisor. “People really do care about this place,” Combs says, “it’s been home for years, so you start taking pride in the environment.” Combs says he also hopes to set an example for those who may not think of themselves as the stewards of our campus landscape.

Another clean-up volunteer, Melissa Graham, assistant dean of student success and belonging, was thankful for the opportunity to be sharing time outdoors with people she usually doesn’t get to see. “It’s [also] an excuse to not be behind a computer for as many hours as I usually am,” she says, adding that the event has helped her to feel closer to the land.

Graham, who is also a senior lecturer in mathematics, is new to the campus clean-up event. But she says she will definitely be back next year.

“I love how beautiful this campus looks when it gets to be graduation time,” Graham says. “And it’s just fun to be a part of making that happen.”