On Saturday October 7th the Beautify Southern Illinois Student Alliance (BSISA) teamed up with the Sierra Club to help pick up litter in the eastern Shawnee National Forest in an event called the Shawnee Trash Bash. Volunteers from the two groups and the community were split up and sent to one of five locations, including Garden of the Gods, Rim Rock, Pounds Hollow, Stone Face, and Bell Smith Springs where they picked up trash all afternoon. After the hard work was done, volunteers met at Pounds Hollow for a cook out and live music. BSISA has picked up trash in many local communities, but this event was special for the group because of the location of the cleanup.

Janine Gawel, BSISA President, remarked, “I had heard this area was beautiful, but I had no idea just how beautiful it actually is. I can’t believe that people would litter in a place like this.”

The event gave BSISA members the chance to experience the natural beauties that Southern Illinois has to offer while doing a great service for the environment. It is an unpleasant experience to be hiking through the woods and come across a piece of trash that someone has carelessly left behind. Hopefully this will not happen for some time in the eastern Shawnee. After the positive turnout and the fun had, this will hopefully become an annual or semi-annual event to help other areas of the forest regain their natural splendor.