Students & Staffers Donate Time to Keep Weslaco Beautiful

STC students, staffers join community to keep Weslaco beautiful.

South Texas College students and staff are doing their part to help spread the word about “going green” by participating in City of Weslaco’s Adopt A Park Program.

Students and faculty of STC’s Mid-Valley Campus Biology Club, DEMSA and Valley Scholars Program, joined VIDA, the Weslaco Beautiful Committee, the Lion’s Club, and Weslaco High School’s Earth and Science clubs to form anti-litter teams to kick off the project. The anti-litter teams volunteered a weekend of their time into making Weslaco more beautiful.

Their first stop on day one of their mission was the recently remodeled Bobby Lackey Stadium. More than 30 volunteers picked up more than two truckloads of plastic bottles from the site, which were delivered to the McAllen Recycling Center. Weslaco Scrap Metal Recycling also got a fare share of the trash picked up, receiving 10 pounds of aluminum ready to be recycled.

Volunteers spent the next day at Weslaco’s largest park, swarming the 80-acre Harlon Block Sports Complex. They cleaned down exercise benches and gathered mounds of litter. Once again recyclable items were separated and sent off to the designated recycling centers.

“Judging from the conversations I had with people, the program is really making an impact on environmental awareness in our communities,” said Dr. Debbie Villalon, STC biology instructor.

The anti-litter teams were pleased with the end result of their weekend’s work and have added another destination to their clean-up agenda. Later in the month volunteers will be participating in a beach cleanup at South Padre Island. They will also have the opportunity to tour the new World Birding Center located at SPI.

Participation in the program is open to anyone. For more information contact Dr. Debbie Villalon at 973-7638 or dvillalon@southtexascollege.edu. To learn more about Weslaco’s Adopt A Park Program visit www.weslaco.com/News/Chamber/990757.