During one of my first classes with ENR scholars, the definition of service was contemplated among my peers and I. We learned that service is a lot more than just blindly helping an organization or cause. The difference between helping, fixing, and serving is all perspective. When you serve your community, it allows you to not think of life as a set of problems that need to be fixed, but yet an opportunity that you can be apart of. We learned that when you serve your community, you should consciously consider what you are doing and how it is beneficial. I kept these postulates in mind as I volunteered with ENR scholars this semester. This semester I worked with FLOW and the Fawcett Center. The first time I volunteered, I worked with Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed, also known as FLOW. This involved picking up trash along the Olentangy River and sites near the road that had been infested with litter like cigarette butts, plastic bags, and old construction site materials. My other experience involved removing invasive species at the Fawcett Center to help restore the indigenous species. This area near the Fawcett Center is continuously used for tailgating during football season. This is detrimental to the environment so ENR scholars is working to help better the area by removing invasive plants in the hopes that the newly restored area will be enough cause to stop tailgating here.
My service this semester addressed littering, environmental restoration, and invasive species. In the future I wish to pursue these issues. Since my service involved the environment, there are many other opportunities available to allow me to continue serving Mother Nature. In the future I can continue to help restore the Olentangy River and the land near the Fawcett Center. I can also help to raise awareness about invasive species, littering, and the importance of the Olentangy River in Columbus.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when on the first day of college I was told I would be helping restore the Olentangy with FLOW, a river and an organization I had never heard of. However, I was told there would be free food, so I just went with it. I figured that it would be some light work helping pick trash out of the river. This was pretty much completely opposite of what I expected. It was hot outside, there was a lot of trash, and actually most of the work I did wasn’t even near the river. My trash bag grew heavy as I collected more and more abandoned trash. A piece of metal in my bag kept scraping kept scraping my leg and I often had to stop to allow the lucky ones who didn’t have trash bags to deposit their trash into mine. I was growing hungry and I felt like no matter how much trash I collected, nothing was changing. However when I finished and reflected on the work I did, I felt like I had actually made a difference, it wasn’t easy but it was worthwhile.
My other experience, I was a little more prepared for. I expected that there would be a lot of physical work and that it wouldn’t be easy. This made it easier for me to comprehend even several hours outside clipping plants down made a difference, even if it seemed like there were still infinity many trees and shrubs that still needed to remove.
Throughout both these acts of service I learned that making a difference in the environment is hard work, physically and mentally. Physically it’s obvious to see why climbing an invasive tree to chop off it’s branches one by one could be demanding, but the hardest was mentally. This is because after working for several hours and still looking out on all the trash left by humans and the invasive species dominating an environment, you feel like your work was worthless. However once you look at how much you have made a difference, how many bags or trash you have collected, how much land you have cleared of invasive species; your work becomes rewarding.
If I were to do anything differently regarding my service, I would definitely bring headphones to keep my mind busy while I work and bring more people to help. Many hands lighten a load and if more people get inspired to do work within the community, the faster it goes and the bigger the impact!
Not only did I learn about environmental restoration and invasive specie removal, I learned a little about myself. I learned that I can persevere and that I am strong willed. I kept a positive attitude throughout my service to encourage others to continue working and to consider the purpose of our work. I also learned that I like helping the environment out. Next semester I hope to continue working it FLOW and the Fawcett Center. It will be rewarding to look back at these areas in a few years and see how far they have come.