Pitt makes a difference

If the bright, neon-yellow T-shirts didn’t wake up the Pitt Make A Difference Day volunteers… If the bright, neon-yellow T-shirts didn’t wake up the Pitt Make A Difference Day volunteers on Saturday morning, than the free 12-oz. energy drinks handed out by the Red Bull girls probably did.

Several thousand students woke up early to participate in the third annual volunteer event that sent students all over Pittsburgh to pick up trash, tend green spaces and conduct other service duties. After the 8:30 a.m. check-in and a brief delay while organizers put together volunteer groups, 59 buses escorted students to various local communities while two groups stayed in Oakland.

Together, the volunteers dedicated more than 9,000 hours to cleaning up various neighorhoods around Pittssburgh.

One bus, number 42, was scheduled to depart for the Southside Flats at 9:15 a.m., but students on the bus didn’t reach their destination until a few minutes before 10 a.m.

Bus 42’s mission was simple: Clean up litter between 21st and 25th streets.

Cathy Mitchell, a member of South Side Community Council and head of Green n’at, a community-beautifying effort, met the volunteers at the intersection of Wharton and 22nd streets.

Mitchell divided the clean-up area into 10 zones so the volunteers could cover ground more quickly. Roughly eight groups of five participants each spanned the five-block stretch, and a designated “team captain” marked on his map all the vacant lots and green spaces the team was able to clean.

The largest group took on a set train tracks and a supermarket parking lot nearby. Freshmen Rachel Mauer and Erika Frick kept the group members entertained as they worked by freestyling to LMFAO’s hit song “Shots.”

The group remained lighthearted during the work. Freshman and group captain Lukas Earhart said, “The sector was clear but we did lose good men to the GE parking lot.”

Later, as some of the troops turned down an alleyway, they were nearly blinded. The side street resembled the quintessential Christmas morning that every toddler envisions — white everywhere — only it was not snow that littered the street, it was discarded cigarettes.

As the volunteers started to clean, Mauer said, “Guys, I think I found stuff,” but she was not referring to presents under a tree. Entangled in overgrown bushes, a chain-link fence and ivy were plastic wrappers, shorts and stray papers.

Some homeowners came out onto to their stoops to watch, a few even joking about having the students come clean inside their houses as well.

Mauer said “It was nice to see people honk and wave. They asked us what we were doing and, well, we’re just making a difference.”

A service fraternity, Alpha Delta from Duquesne, joined the volunteer effort.

“PMADD is not in conjunction with other universities,” said Matt Koller, chair of the PMADD coordinating committee. “Pitt tries to host the event on the same day the national Make A Difference Day organization has it, but the past three years it conflicted with football and homecoming.”

This year, national Make A Difference Day falls on Saturday, Oct. 23.

Pitt is open to allowing neighboring universities to join PMADD, Koller said, but the ideal day would be scheduled in accordance with the national Make a Difference Day.

“There are about 3,000 vacancies open for students to sign up,” Koller said. “We allow 3,600 students to register in case there are dropouts. Next week an official count of the exact amount of attendees of PMADD will be made available.”

Residence Life typically signs up almost half of the participants for the event. The Greek community as well as honors student groups, service groups and other student organizations participate as well.

Mitchell said the volunteers’ job is an important one.

“The trash on the streets is appealing to no one, visitor and residents alike.”

She said East Carson Street, South Side’s main bar drag, attracts many weekend visitors, and trash often clutters the streets on the mornings after.

For that reason, Mitchell is trying to partner with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to gather funding to continually maintain some Pittsburgh neighborhoods and community gardens.

“It is a challenge to consistency, it’s difficult to have residents clean up the neighborhood because they are busy,” she said.

By midafternoon, bus 42 collected a total of 41 bags full of trash.