Photo by Jennifer Coombes

CC’s Day of Service was back for its third annual creek cleanup in Monument Creek in early October. More than 200 participants — 202, to be exact — picked up 3,400 pounds of trash in and around Monument Creek over the course of three two-hour shifts. “The broad goal of the CC Day of Service is to support a culture of community engagement on our campus by raising awareness around stewardship of our local watershed, as well as the numbers of individuals experiencing homelessness in our city,” says Jordan Radke, director of the CC’s Collaborative for Community Engagement.

The Fountain Creek Watershed organization partnered with CC to sponsor the cleanup of Monument Creek as part of Colorado Springs Creek Week. The three main organizations on campus spearheading the event were the Collaborative for Community Engagement, the Office of Sustainability, and the State of the Rockies. This is an effort to “improve water quality, wildlife habitat, and health of local waterways while fostering community and environmental stewardship,” says Jonah Seifer ’16, the State of the Rockies Project paraprofessional for research and community outreach.