Student volunteers and organizations joined American University’s Grounds team for the annual Campus Beautification Day on April 7, planting new greenery, painting campus walls and more.
To prepare for the highly anticipated, day-long event, facilities management and student volunteers pre-dug areas around campus to plant new flowers, trees and other plants.
Some of this year’s locations were Roper Hall, the Hall of Science and the Asbury building garden.
Arboretum and Landscape Manager James Biddle said he worked for two months to plan the campus event, creating the landscape and map for where different plants would go.
Biddle said that because this was his first year planning the event, he was excited to jump into it. Campus Beautification has been an annual event since the 1990s, and Biddle said he wanted to make this year’s event as special as possible.
“It’s a real capital-T tradition,” Biddle said, “and so I wanted to just meet everyone’s expectations.”
The women’s basketball team helped plant trees and the men’s basketball team painted the windows of the Hall of Science. Emma Blankenship, a member of the volleyball team and a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said volunteering was very rewarding.
“One of the reasons I love this campus so much is because of the fact that it’s an arboretum,” Blankenship said. “I’ve always really appreciated the nature surrounding us and the environment we’re in.”
Beautification Day ran through the morning, with students and members of the grounds team working in tandem.
“There’s just a lot of work that goes into keeping this campus the way it looks,” Blankenship said. “So very appreciative of all the work they [the ground maintenance team] do for us.”
Blankenship said campus beautification has larger implications for the student body.
“It has a direct effect on our mood, so I’m super happy to be able to beautify this campus,” Blankenship said.
Now, the quad is surrounded by bright purple flowers and trees with green leaves.
In the days leading up to the event, Biddle said he was happy to see the enthusiastic student volunteers flooding the sign-up sheet. He photographed each location before and after the event, and after seeing the day’s success, Biddle said he felt rewarded by the campus-wide accomplishment.
The long-term impact of Beautification Day is what he said he is most looking forward to.
“It wasn’t meant to be ‘wow’ on the first day after install, but over time, I am really excited to see how it’s going to develop,” Biddle said.
This article was edited by Natalie Hausmann, Payton Anderson and Walker Whalen.
Copy editing done by Avery Grossman, Mattie Lupo and Jaden Maitland Anderson.
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