Jose Hernandez / Contributing Writer
The FIU Biscayne Bay Campus is a unique college campus that has flourished with activities such as the triathlon held May 29, and the construction of the new Bayview student apartments. There is one major issue though, and that is the trash hidden at the bay below the foliage.
As a result, the School of Environment Arts and Society organized a cleanup event on Tuesday, June 7 where 20 participants gathered at the kayak launch area at BBC to have a team-building experience, while picking up trash around the bay. At this cleanup, the participants found children’s toys, broken glass and even rusty steel cans.
“All the recyclable trash like plastic bottles or things that do not have a lot of gunk inside of it will be recycled,” said sophomore Sandra Shoenlank who is studying Hospitality Administration. “Everything else that does not get recycled is just trash that will be thrown away, because the recycling plants do not accept dirty waste because it would be more difficult for them to process it.”
The participants for this cleanup received free movie tickets to watch Pixar’s Finding Dory on June 17.
“We get a lot of movie tickets for movies like The Jungle Book and Captain America,” said the assistant director of Campus Recreation, Warren Shaw. “We customize every event to the [plot] of movies of which we give out tickets to watch. In this case, the clean-up is customized towards finding dory because the movie takes place at a bay. There should be a natural interest for the participants to take part in events such as this one, but the movie tickets incentivize it which motivates people to come out and take part in the events.”
The event was advertised with a mass email to all faculty and students of FIU, via social media and was open to the community. Participants included FIU alumni and members of the College of Medicine’s Green Family Foundation NeighborhoodHELP.
“My marine biology teacher asked us (the students) to come out and take part of the cleanup,” Shoenlank said. “I probably would not have participated in the clean-up if it weren’t for my teacher because none of my friends want[ed] to come with me, but it was nice that he invited the class because I’m learning a lot in his class.”
For some people, this cleanup was about more than just keeping the environment clean. They feel that this is a responsibility that should be handled by those who live on the campus or use the campus.
“This is a great initiative for FIU because without people cleaning up the bay, then who else is going to do it?” said FIU alumnus Sofia Galiano. “I feel like the students should get involved because it is a great way to network and it’s also a great way to just keep your own environment clean.”
SEAS will continue to organize more community events in the future.
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