Being a Buckeye takes on many forms, including giving back to the campus and the community. Generosity was on display this weekend as warmer weather welcomed green-focused clean-ups across the Columbus campus.
Students came together to tidy the Jennings Hall rain garden and Aronoff bioswale. The volunteers weeded beds, picked up trash and mulched while Facilities Operations and Development (FOD) supplied the mulch and a truck to place yard waste.
Over at the Longaberger Alumni House and Fawcett Center, a separate group of volunteers focused on invasive plant removal and tree planting. The student groups from Society for Ecological Restoration at Ohio State and Seeds of Service provided more than 60 volunteers to help plant native seedlings and container trees and shrubs and to perform litter clean-up. Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed (FLOW) and FOD provided materials and assistance in drilling planting holes.
FOD also supplied 20 native container trees, purchased with campus beautification funds, while the City of Columbus provided 1,000 trees and shrubs seedlings.
On west campus, Carmack Woods was the site of a major litter clean-up and native tree and shrub seedling planting. Earlier in the year, a contractor cleaned out invasives around the existing pond. FOD funded hiring the contractor through campus beautification funding. FOD provided student interns to help with compost and recycling of snack material wrappers. FLOW provided equipment and supervision.
Thank you to all the Buckeye volunteers for giving back!