Participants in the greek life program turned to volunteer work on Friday, Oct. 12, in a combined effort to clean up a two-mile stretch of Highway 12. The project brought together students from the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and the Sigma Chi fraternity. Spearheaded this year by Maryn Juergens and James Bevan-Lee, the philanthropy chairs for their respective organizations, highway clean up has become an annual event.

“With our sorority we have the ability to mobilize a group of 70 energetic and motivated young people to do good for the community,” said Juergens in an e-mail. “I believe that as a greek group we need to take advantage of that opportunity.”

According to Juergens, about 20 students spent two hours working on the strip of highway that the Sigma Chi fraternity has “adopted.”

“I think it’s important to represent greek life with something other than partying,” said Emily Ferrier, a first year student and Kappa Alpha Theta pledge.

Volunteering may not be the first image that many students associate with greek life, but students like Juergens are working hard to change that perception. “Our sorority is about so much more than ourselves,” Juergens said. “It is about being a citizen in our global community.”

“I’m glad that greek life promotes community service,” said Ferrier. “But I think in general they could organize community service opportunities more often.”

On a campus where the College Board reports nearly one in three female students join sororities and even higher numbers of male students, about 41 percent, join fraternities, commitment to volunteer work could have a big impact.

Juergens stressed the importance of environmental awareness and keeping the earth in good condition. She said that she considers community service activities like the highway clean-up project to be “one of the most important parts of greek life.”