Trudging through crunchy, dried vegetation along a sun-soaked creek bed in Normal’s Fairview Park, freshman Arianna Montez stops every few feet to grab litter caught in the early-spring thicket.
With a trash picker and an oversized garbage bag, she collects dozens of windblown Styrofoam cups, plastic lids, aluminum cans, and candy wrappers that accumulated throughout the winter.
“We’re just trying to make the environment cleaner, because we all contribute to pollution,” said Montez, a family and consumer sciences teacher education major. She was one of more than 30 students who volunteered two hours Friday afternoon during Illinois State University’s annual Bring it Back to Normal (BIBTN) event.
Organized by the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE), BIBTN has provided students with an opportunity to give back to their “home away from home” since 2008. This year, volunteers from across campus—including several SOAR (Supporting, Opportunity, Actualization, and Realization) Scholars—worked with three local organizations: Normal Parks and Recreation, the Ecology Action Center, and the ParkLands Foundation.
“With civic engagement, we think about our actions, attitudes, beliefs, and values—and the way that we’re involved with our community,” said McKenna Myers, the CCE’s community service graduate assistant. “This event is particularly inspired in that we want ISU students to see that they’re more than just ISU students in the Bloomington-Normal community. The goal is for them to create a connection to Bloomington-Normal through service.”
Although Fairview is just a few steps north of campus, freshman Kayla Davis, of Crystal Lake, said Friday’s BIBTN service project facilitated her first visit to the sprawling, 20-acre park.
“I’ll definitely be back. I’m trying to hike and walk more,” Davis said while picking up trash along the Constitution Trail near Fairview’s western border. “It’s important to give back to the community that gives to you, and it’s also a way to venture out and see everything that our community has to offer.”
Aubrey Thimesch, a junior majoring in psychology who is a CCE student leader in civic engagement, served as Fairview’s site leader. They oversaw 11 students who, over the course of two hours, collected seven bags of trash, an abandoned bicycle, a discarded microwave, and an old vinyl turntable.
“It’s really fulfilling work,” Thimesch said. “The community does so much for us college students—I mean, we kind of take over Normal during the school year. But there’s so much for us to do in this community. And I think giving back shows that we really appreciate what the community does for us.”
Across town, volunteers including State Representative Sharon Chung worked with the Ecology Action Center to stencil “Drains to stream, keep it clean,” in front of roadside drainage grates. And, at the Moon Preserve in nearby Hudson and the South Chinquapin Preserve in Carlock, volunteers helped the ParkLands Foundation clear brush and remove invasive species.
“With the groups that we’re working with today, our volunteers are impacting an entire neighborhood, anyone who chooses to visit the ParkLands preserves, and anyone who benefits from Fairview Park,” Myers said. “Our goal with this project is thinking about the number of people that are going to be impacted by this work.”
Along the Fairview creek bed, Montez drops yet another discarded wrapper into her growing bag of trash. Then, she pauses to consider how she can continue fostering a clean environment and a caring community during her next three years on campus.
“Getting involved is more than just devoting time,” Montez said. “It’s about making a difference in the world.”
