With the end of the semester approaching, it is time to get the campus clean again. Twenty-two students from the Student Government Association, Student Alumni Association and Phi Gamma Delta  (FIJI) gathered April 18 to help with the SGA neighborhood sweep.  Only about 30 percent of the College’s undergraduate students live on campus; most students live in the College’s surrounding neighborhoods and leave a mess behind. 
Sophomore Jessica Mitsch, chairperson for SGA’s Community Outreach Committee, led the project. 
 “SGA usually does two city sweeps a semester, but this year we wanted to just do one big event to get more people and organizations involved,” Mitsch said.
SGA joined with Keep Charleston Beautiful to make it a bigger project. 
“Keep Charleston Beautiful is holding a city-wide competition for two weeks.  The challenge is to put together projects throughout the whole city,” Mitsch said.
SGA focused on the neighborhoods of Radcliffeborough and Harleston Village bordering the College’s campus where many students live. 
 “We have a responsibility as students to clean up the mess we make,” Mitsch said.
The group met in River’s Green behind the library.  There were three SGA teams, an SAA team and a FIJI team.  Each team was assigned a neighborhood, given a trash inventory sheet and trash bags and other supplies provided by Keep Charleston Beautiful. 
Before the neighborhood sweep began, sophomore FIJI member Elliot Dickerson said volunteering is an important part of FIJI.
“This event is a great way to be active in the community and not only represent the College but Greek Life,” Dickerson said. “FIJI has always focused on community service and this is one more step to continuing that involvement.”
Junior Nicholas Boatwright of SAA said he hoped this would help build relationships with the community.
“SAA wanted to participate to keep up better alumni relations in the city,” Boatwright said. “We hope to talk to people in the city and let them know we want to help out.”
After about an hour and a half of cleaning, the group met up again for pizza and cupcakes.  They collected 17 total bags, 12 bags of trash and five bags of recycling. 
SGA team one won the competition for most trash collected and received FreshBerry gift cards and Keep Charleston Beautiful gear.  SAA’s team, the Green Angels, won best team name in honor of the Blue Angels flying in Charleston over the weekend. 
Senior John Capelle was a member of SGA team four in charge of cleaning up areas around Morris Street and Radcliffe Street. 
“We talked to one guy in the neighborhood who thanked us for helping out,” Capelle said. “For the most part, the neighbors were surprised to see that C of C students were out there cleaning up their mess.”
Many students live and make a mess in the College’s surrounding neighborhoods, Capelle said, and by cleaning up, students can mend a torn reputation.
“The event helps out with the relationship between the students and the neighborhoods because there is an obvious negative connotation toward the students,” Capelle said. “We are committed to help our image as College students and SGA.  This event shows another side of the students.”
Sophomore and SGA secretary Ross Kressel led SGA team one to their neighborhood sweep victory, but it was a messy one.
“It was pretty gross.  Liquid plus trash bags are not good,” Kressel said. “I am just glad the streets are cleaner.  The neighbors were very appreciative.”
The event proved a great way to show the neighborhoods that the College’s students support the city and want to be involved in helping out where they can, Kressel said.
“The biggest thing is maintaining the relationship between the College and the city,” Kressel said. “Events like this really reinforce that relationship because we cannot exist without each other.”