In the morning sun of Friday, April 24, the University of New Mexico hosted a Campus Clean Up as part of the Office of Sustainability Earth Month celebration.
After being served coffee and burritos, volunteers were sent to different locations around campus to pick up trash, pull weeds, spread mulch and plant trees. Office of Sustainability Director Anne Jakle said the event drew roughly 50 volunteers.
“There is a place for everybody to help implement sustainability at UNM, and there’s so many different areas that people can help in,” Jakle said. “This helps people get out onto campus, to appreciate the trees, the grounds, the amazing wellness benefits that the community, that the campus environment brings, but also have ownership over it, too.”
One group was made up of Gabriel Quiroz, a UNM facilities manager who specializes in pest control, Molly Arévalo, the associate director of the Language Learning Center and the Parking and Transportation Services Associate Director of Business and Administration Operations Christine Evans.
The group was responsible for weeding and mulching the flower beds near the Spanish Dancers outside of Popejoy. The bark mulch used was made from the trimmings of trees around UNM’s campus, Grounds and Landscaping Manager Richard Schorr said.
Quiroz said as a grounds keeper, it made him happy to see other people from other departments come out and do the work.
“This is my first time, and I really like this type of program or activities where you can get the rest of the University community involved in grounds work,” Quiroz said. “I do this every day. It can be hard, sometimes. Right now, it’s pretty beautiful out here. It’s perfect for people volunteering. I really like this type of event; I love them.”
Evans said the Campus Clean Up offered an opportunity for the rubber gloves to hit the road.
“We work closely with grounds when we understand how hard that team works, and we want to support them, however we can, as well as the community, because everybody loves how beautiful this campus is,” Evans said. “I’ve turned these planters into my babies. It’s nice to come back here after a year, and weed them again, and spread mulch for them.”
Arévalo, a second-year volunteer at the Campus Clean Up, said it feels nice to help out around the campus she spends so much time on.
“This is a wonderful event to finish off a week’s worth of Earth Day and sustainability events at UNM,” Arevalo said. “I love walking around campus — such a beautiful place, and I feel like it’s the least that I can do to give back a little bit of my time once a year, to help beautify it.”
Schorr said some sunflowers were left as the birds fed on the seeds, but others were pulled because they got too tall and fell in the paths.
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“It’s everybody’s campus. Everybody walks it every day. Everybody would like to be a part of it, and this is a way for them to engage more than just being in it,” Schorr said.
Addison Fulton is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
