Kohl Hall’s Chapman Learning Community celebrated Earth Day early with almost two hours of spring cleaning Wednesday on Interstate-75.

Nearly 200 students and about 10 faculty supervisors were shuttled to a stretch of highway about seven miles long, from Kramer Road to Route 582, to pick up trash and recyclables.

The cleanup was sponsored by the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Adopt-A-Highway program, a statewide program several University organizations partake in every year.

The service project was significant in two ways — it marked the year’s last CORE event and it was also the first all-community project for the group — Chapman director Madeline Duntley said.

“That’s one of the things that marks Chapman — a commitment to service learning,” Duntley said. “Once a month, we all meet together as a community for a CORE event, and this is how we’re going to do our year end meeting, by giving back to the community and celebrating Earth Day.”

Duntley said planning the cleanup could not have been completed without the cooperation of ODOT, which supplied safety vests, garbage bags, signs and support staff.

“We always wanted to do an Earth Day project, but we had never been able to get one together. ODOT was the first group willing to take on almost 200 people,” she said. “Usually tools are the obstacles, but you can do this with your gloves and hands.”

District coordinator for Adopt-A-Highway programs in Wood County Kim Roessner said ODOT was very excited and eager to accept Duntley’s request for an Adopt-A-Highway cleanup.

She also said Chapman’s CORE event was the largest Adopt-A-Highway group coordinated in Wood County.

“This was a really quick way to get a lot of highway cleaned at a time it was really needed … It saves us a lot of time and money,” Roessner said. “This is a huge endeavor in a really visible area. I’m really happy they volunteered for it.”

Freshman Chapman member Hannah Walsh said the Earth Day CORE event was her first experience with Adopt-A-Highway and she enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment afterwards.

“I think volunteering is important because we can change the world just by helping with the smallest things,” Walsh said. “And the benefit of volunteering with Chapman is that you know the people and the job gets done quicker, and you have more fun doing the work.”

Duntley said she is hopeful the Earth Day cleanup will help a generation of students become more aware of its surroundings and realize how important it is to not litter. She said the water in the ditches is a vital part of the wildlife around the cleanup site and cleanups like this are important for sustaining a healthy environment.

“It’s an important public image for the BG campus to have all of its entry and exit points clean, manicured and safe … We all need to cooperate in keeping our roadways safe and beautiful,” Duntley said. “You take it for granted that these roadways are maintained, but it takes a phenomenal amount of work to keep them clean and respectable.”