Animal and equine science students give back to community

Leslie Mendez, animal science major, carefully cleans a small garden space of a neighbor of Colorado State University. The senior citizen called the students who cleaned her yard as part of the fall cleanup, angels. Photo by Dixie Crowe.

A small group of Colorado State University students who rioted at parties out of control this fall tarnished the reputation of their peers and the school with the community.

Fortunately this behavior is not the norm; it’s a behavioral aberration that has been condemned by the student body government, the university and the student body.

Animal and equine science students took advantage of the annual fall cleanup event that pairs student groups with senior citizens in the community to represent the positive contribution that students make in the community.

The north Fort Collins neighbor needed the apples from her 60-year old tree cleaned up off the sidewalks and the backyard, as well as leaves raked, her garden beds weeded and prepped for winter, and some hanging limbs from the apple tree trimmed back.

Students cheerfully accomplished all the duties and after the homeowner looked over their work she said the students were her angels and she couldn’t have done any of the work they did.

While CSU picks up bags of leaves collected from houses during the cleanup, they wouldn’t pick up the bags of rotting apples. So the students loaded the bags into a pickup truck to dispose of for the homeowner whose eyes wetted with tears as she hugged the students and their faculty advisor.