City residents (pictured above at past cleanup events) promoted a sense of community by doing community service for Good Neighbor Day on Saturday.
Before the Lakeland area was home to the University Club and Parkside apartment complexes, it had a rich and troubled history — a predominately black community thrived for more than 70 years, then lost nearly two-thirds of its homes to urban renewal.
But many of the students who rent in the community, just down the Route 1 from the engineering fields, haven’t heard that lore or other facts about the neighborhood. Having a transient student population makes it harder to build a sense of community or reap its benefits, said area resident Barbara Barron, which is why she was happy to see students partaking in a Lakeland history workshop and 5K trail hike on Saturday as part of Good Neighbor Day.
“This area is not the same as it used to be,” Barron said. “If we don’t look back and tell the students — as well as the community members — who don’t know the history of this place, they’ll never understand what it means to keep it clean and safe.”
More than 260 people, about half of them student volunteers, participated in those events or a host of other activities and community service events. After gathering at the College Park Community Center, volunteers parted ways to help out in various manners, such as cleaning up the Old Town playground or sorting donated goods at the College Park Food Bank.
Evan Constantine, a sophomore landscape architecture major, joined one of his classes in planting new trees. While many students don’t often interact with the city’s permanent residents on a daily basis, having neighbors to turn to comes in handy, Constantine said.
“Building community helps encourage the exchange of ideas,” Constantine said. “And the more people know each other, the easier it is to stop crime.”
Spending some quality time caring for their corner of College Park may help students and officials encourage others to act responsibly, said Gloria Blackwell, Office of Community Engagement director.
“As we move forward and strive to enhance this city and make it beautiful and vibrant, we’re hoping that those affiliated with the university will want to connect with College Park and some of the historic locations,” Blackwell said. “If they see what’s out there, we’re hoping that they’ll want to keep these areas clean.”
Community members are also interested in building relationships with the campus community, Barron said.
“It helps to have this one-on-one time with the students,” Barron said. “There’s so much to be done, but we have a really big team here today.”
For Erica Zippert, a graduate student in human development and quantitative methodology, volunteering on Good Neighbor Day was a chance to get out of the classroom and into the community with fellow members of the Human Development Graduate Student Organization.
“I like the idea of closing that gap,” Zippert said. “Both the university and the city can benefit from this interaction … It’s great to be able to give back to the people whose resources we share.”
