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Building a culture of service |
“We want to encourage our s tudents to develop an understanding of their responsibility to assist in the development of their society,” so stated Pastor Beckles, Director of Campus Ministries at USC. He was passionate as he talked about his desire for students to be deeply involved in community service as part of their social responsibility and overall development at USC.
With this in mind, Pastor Beckles spearheaded the big community service project that involved the entire University family. Over 400 students, faculty, and staff from USC participated in the cleanup campaign in Port of Spain, the capital city in Trinidad. Equipped with brooms, rakes, cutlasses, scrapers, garbage bags, paint, brushes and rollers and powerwashers, the USC army descended on the city early on Sunday, February 8 and began the arduous task of enhancing the aesthetics of sections of the capital. The enthusiastic team cleaned the park and painted benches and curb walls in Woodford Square and the Brian Lara Promenade. The footpath in Broadway looked brand new after receiving a pressure wash and nicely painted curb walls. South Quay and Independence Square were swept clean and the garbage removed. And newspaper reports indicated that the city had indeed received a facelift.
It was heartening to see the USC cleanup crew marching off to their various locations, some chanting slogans like “keep a clean scene” and “keep the city clean.”
The project was conducted in collaboration with the Port of Spain City Corporation, under the auspices of His Worship the Mayor of Port of Spain, Mr. Murchison Brown. Mayor Brown donned his hat, gloves and paint brush and participated in the work project. He was generous in his gratitude to the university and even more so as he noted the spirit of service on the part of the USC. “We did not ask them,” he stated, “they volunteered to help; we hope more groups can follow suit.” Senator Hazel Manning, Minister of Local Government, also came out in solidarity of the venture. “Thank you very much,” she repeated continuously, as she met with the various groups at their work sites.
“I hope we can make this an annual effort; we have lots to do to take back all those vacant lots and beautify them with trees and benches; we will be happy if USC can continue to help us.” President Gardner was on hand dabbling in a little bit of everything—a little painting on the East Dry River Bridge, and a little raking in Woodford Square, obviously happy for the tremendous impact that the project had made toward the overall development of the nation. He also joined in commending Pastor Beckles for a job well done and expressed his support for continued collaboration with the government toward the fulfillment of its development agenda.
Pastor Beckles further explained that he hopes this project would serve to address some of the environmental problems facing the nation. He feels that having the students involved in this type of work would make them conscious of the need to break the bad environmental habits that they may have developed, and assist them in fostering acceptable attitudes toward the environment.
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