To kick off Love the Boot Week, LSU Student Government partnered with Geaux Green to host a Keep Louisiana Beautiful cleanup on Saturday.
Students gathered near the LSU UREC and University Lakes at 8 a.m. to pick up trash. SG also partnered with hair care brand Garnier for this event. Garnier provided grabbers, gloves and trash bags for the cleanup.
Kim Nhat Huynh-Truitt, Geaux Green’s outreach coordinator, said her organization wanted to co-host this event to increase outreach to students. Geaux Green hopes to have more hands-on service events next year.
Huynh-Truitt said trash cleanups seem to be the best way to get students, especially non-environmental majors, involved in sustainability.
“It has a more direct impact and also sort of instant gratification,” Huynh-Truitt, civil engineering junior, said. “Seeing the parking lot as you walk back to your car, it’s clean now as opposed to before. It’s just easier than going out and doing something like marsh planting.”
SG regularly holds these cleanups and focuses on the lake area, but the need to pick up trash remains.
Agricultural business freshman Devony Ross said she picked up a large amount of trash and found the cleanup therapeutic.
“I also think it really connects you deeper with the community,” Ross said.
While she helped her community, Ross said she experienced areas of campus she had not seen before. She said the cleanup was her first time walking around the lakes.
Funding from the Student Senate provided Chick-fil-A for the participants at the cleanup.
Gabreyela Gonzalez, Student Government’s coordinator of campus affairs and sustainability, said if she holds the same position next year, she plans to have food provided at all the cleanups as well as collaborations like this one with Garnier.
Gonzalez, a chemical engineering junior, is also chair of the Student Sustainability Fund. All full-time LSU students pay a two-dollar fee each semester that goes into the SSF.
This small fee enhances existing university funding for sustainability. Students, faculty and staff can apply for funding to support environmental sustainability-related projects.
Gonzalez said she is in the middle of dispersing funds to proposals. So far, her sector has awarded about $60,000 split up between eight projects. She added that last year, the SSF awarded more than $130,000.
Gonzalez hopes to be the chair of the SSF next year, too. She wants to make applications semesterly instead of yearly, allowing more students a chance to access funds.
“As chair, I’m very lenient. I give people a bunch of chances to revise,” Gonzalez said. “Anyone can access SSF, as long as the proposal has a direct student benefit, is very thorough and has an itemized budget and all that.”
Gonzalez also emphasized how much the Keep LSU Beautiful cleanups have grown. She recalled the first cleanups in 2024 when she was an assistant coordinator of campus affairs and sustainability.
She and the other assistant coordinator were the only two participants at the first cleanup. It slowly grew. Now, some Keep LSU Beautiful cleanups have as many as 60 to 80 participants.
“So just to see that progression and more people getting to know about it is really nice,” Gonzalez said.
Campus Sustainability is hosting another Keep Louisiana Beautiful cleanup event on April 25.
