Missouri Western helps clean up St. Joseph

By Ashley Luthans

Missouri Western State University’s Center for Service hosted its fourth annual Griffs Give Back Day of Service on Friday morning.

Approximately 200 students, faculty and staff from Missouri Western volunteered to clean streets and sidewalks around St. Joseph.

Freshman Maddie Chidester explained why she came out to help.

“We’re doing it for the community, but also our lacrosse team’s doing it,” Chidester said. “And it’s just like kind of a good cause to pick up trash on the side of the road and make the community better.”

From Krug Park to Hyde Park, and lots of spots in between, these volunteers spent their morning giving back to the community.

Many other student organizations were present at the clean-up event.

One student on the baseball team, Noah Young, said he thinks it’s everybody’s responsibility to keep St. Joseph clean.

“We wanna like just encourage everybody just to throw their stuff away and just do their part and just keep the streets clean,” Young said.

Young’s teammate, Josh Nolte, shared why he thinks it is important to give back to the community.

“We need to give back to the community ‘cause they give so much to us,” Nolte said. “So it’s important to be out here and help this community as much as we can.”

The project is a collaboration with several different St. Joseph organizations, including Lindbergh Elementary and Hosea Elementary, Community Missions, Beautify St. Joseph and the city of St. Joseph.