As most of us know, many Amherst neighborhoods were affected by the Blarney Blowout escapades that took place this past weekend. Due to the large quantity of students traveling back and forth between day-time parties, damage was inevitable and left many residents of the Amherst community rightfully upset. There was a ton of trash and other debris covering the streets of Fearing, North Pleasant, Phillips, Allen and Nutting. These streets are homes to not only local Amherst residents but also Greek chapter houses, The Hillel House and other houses belonging to UMass students, UMass sports team members, and UMass club members. On Sunday, March 9th (the day after the Blarney Blowout celebration) over fifty members of the UMass Greek chapters gathered to lend a hand in cleaning up trash throughout the neighborhood.
According to Abigail Whiting, Vice President of Membership on the Panhellenic Council, Panhel had decided to do a massive clean up before Blarney had even taken place, just to ensure that the residential areas surrounding UMass were not left a mess. “Our Panhellenic Executive Board decided to plan a street clean-up following the day of Blarney Blowout earlier last week,” Abigial says. “We suspected there would be lots of trash covering the neighborhood and thought it would be great to come together as a community and help clean up as much as we could. When we met up on Sunday at noon, our E-Board was extremely delighted to see so many UMass Greeks had showed up to help restore the area, especially after hearing about the negative stories involving Blarney Blowout. In difficult times like these, it’s great to see that students are willing to come together and help rejuvenate the Amherst community we know and love!”
Sorority women of the seven Panhellenic chapters including Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Chi Omega, Iota Gamma Upsilon, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Sigma Delta Tau and Sigma Kappa helped clean up Amherst. Fraternity men of the Inter-Fraternity Chapters including Pi Kappa Alpha, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Alpha Sigma Phi also participated in the clean up, collecting around 30 bags of trash!
Way to go Greeks!