By: Courtney Lyons
On Sept. 16, the Sustainability Committee of the Undergraduate Student Association (USA), in collaboration with the New Buffalo Institute and Campus Ministry, will host their first of three community cleanups this semester.
Formerly referred to as campus cleanups, community cleanup participants will be equipped with gloves and trash bags to execute this hands-on, team-oriented beautification initiative. Genevieve Fontana, chair of the USA Sustainability Committee, renamed the event to “bridge the gap between campus and the neighborhood” — namely, Hamlin Park where Canisius University is located.
To the environmentally-conscious Fontana, Canisius is uniquely situated. Whereas other college communities are relatively isolated from metropolitan areas, Canisius is an “island in the middle of a food desert and needy neighborhood.” As such, Fontana believes we must “use our resources to help them.”
Fontana emphasized that said resources will be implemented in a non-intrusive way, for the intention of the event is to “work with our neighborhood,” not for it. For Fontana, “mesh[ing] a connection between neighborhoods in a community” depends on asking for “permission and cooperation.”
Anyone and everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend this and subsequent community cleanups on Oct. 14 and Nov. 11. Participants are asked to meet outside of Christ the King Chapel at 10 a.m. for complimentary breakfast prior to the roughly two-hour event.
These cleanups are just one iteration of Canisius University’s contribution to Buffalo’s distinguished appellation as “the city of good neighbors.”
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