For whatever reason, members of Lambda Pi Eta seem drawn to wind-blown garbage. The Saturday morning of April 18th again found students from Wittenberg's Xi Phi Chapter of the national communication honorary and their devoted faculty advisor, Dr. Warber out in the community hunting for trash whereever it may lurk in the wooded places of Springfield. Lambda Pi Eta applied for and received a grant from the society's national headquarters to carry out service to the community in conjunction with another society on campus, a role filled by Wittenberg's Mortar Board chapter. The Snyder Park project, bolstered by the Simon Kenton Bike Trail project two weeks earlier, was carried out to fulfill these obligations and to build bridges between the university and the community through voluntary service.

While a few members of Lambda Pi Eta had attended the Simon Kenton Bike Trail Clean-Up, this time the group was out in force. With fourteen of the chapter's members in attendance, Dr. Warber, and a few members of Mortar Board assisting as well, they were well prepared for the task ahead. That task was simple - to spend the morning beautifying nearby Snyder Park by collecting trash that collects under the trees and along the railroad tracks which run adjacent to the park.Unlike the bike trail clean-up a few weeks earlier, Spring had finally come and the morning was pleasant and warm by the 18th. The members of Lambda Pi Eta and their Mortar Board colleagues enjoyed fellowship, service, and beautiful weather all at once while helping the community.

One park caretaker stopped to offer the services of her truck for garbage bag removal and made the comment that, "It's sad... people don't seem to care about the parks these days. We sure appreciate what you're doing though." Thankfully, it turned out that some people do care. The clean-up team was surprise more than once when people walking their dogs or a car full of young men stopped to sincerely thank them for their service to the park and community. By morning's end, the park appeared well-groomed and many large, non-biodegradable objects had been extracted from the woods.

As the clean-up efforts came to a close, a passing train's engineer toot-ed his thanks to the thrilled honorary members. It immediately became clear that no matter how old you get, train whistles never cease to bring smiles. It signaled the end of a project that had been in the works for months, though in a way it was the beginning of something as well. The purpose of the society's service projects this Spring were not simply to clean a park, but to set a precedent for future students. Being a member in an honorary is about more than being honored - it is also about teaming up with other motivated students to do some good in this world. The hope is that both the grant money and the example set by the current chapter members will be catalysts for future endeavors and that the idea of giving back to the city of Springfield will live on for years to come.                                                          

                                                                                                                               ~ Lukas Treu '09