To celebrate Earth Day, several Madison College student groups made major efforts to pickup trash in local environments all around the City of Madison. Business Professionals of America (BPA), La Raza and Veterans Club all coordinated individual events to for urban cleanups. Additionally, Volunteer Center and STEM Academy collaborated to clean up areas around the Madison College campuses.
For their first environmental cleanup, the BPA club joined an outside group effort to clean the Starkweather Neighborhood, which was hosted by Sustain Dane with support from local business Ian’s Pizza.
BPA club leaders emphasized that trash washes into lakes, rivers, and other waterways, which would harm the local wildlife and the planet, so people must learn how to recycle properly. La Raza group leaders held similar sentiments, coordinating their Earth Day event at another urban greenspace, Warner Park.
La Raza Treasurer Cole Klapheke said that last year the group several pounds of trash in the waterways of Warner Park, including plastics, scrap metals, loose wiring, fishing line and he even personally found an entire tent buried under the dirt on the park grounds.
“I think Earth Day is a great day to bring awareness to environmental pollution… it’s the most convenient and allowed us to have the excuse to do it, but I truly think we need to have more days where we clean up all the trash everywhere,” Klapheke emphasized.
Overall, he said that La Raza has understood that students are seeking community connections, and so they will build that campus presence through community assistance and taking direct action through events like Hispanic Heritage Month, Dia Internacional de la Mujer Trabajadora and May Day.

The Veterans Club leaders and advisors saw an Earth Day cleanup as a means to connect students with a volunteer service opportunity and address a need to keep the campus grounds clean.
AJ Brown, Vice President of Veterans Club, said that his primary goal is give military connected students visibility, so they can see how they could also get involved in campus programming.
“Our goal was really just to pick up as much trash as possible, and to do it together as a group,” Brown said. “Really we’ve been trying to build up the club and get the word out that military connected students are on campus building community.”
There are approximately over 500 military affiliated students on campus, and Brown stressed the need for veterans to have a space to engage with each other at Madison College.
For all the clubs leading the events, community was a reoccurring theme to unite their members in volunteer service. And that’s ultimately why the Volunteer Center found it necessary to give students the opportunity to get connected with events that protect the environment on Earth Day.
Volunteer Center Special Events Coordinator Nyawer Biel made use of her status as a STEM Academy student to create that collaboration.
“I think volunteering matters because it makes a visible difference around our school, so that people see us and know they can contribute as well,” Biel explained.
Editor’s Note: Kai Brito is the Interim President of Business Professionals of America and coordinated the Earth Day Urban Cleanup Event.