By Andrew Blankenship

With a small amount of time and a willingness to pick up garbage, UK students did their part to clean up campus Wednesday.

About 20 students gathered at Stoll Field to pick up trash as part of Campus Clean-up. The event was part of Earthdays in the Bluegrass, a month-long celebration during April sponsored by UK Greenthumb and Residence Life Recycling.

Participants spent more than an hour walking around Central Campus with trash bags and smaller grocery sacks for recyclable goods. A wide variety of trash was found, including bottles, cans, lottery tickets, cigarette butts, tea bags and parts to a printer.

Linguistics junior Katie Cohen said the event helped raise awareness.

“They see us picking up trash, and they don’t want to throw their cigarette down because, ‘Hey, these people have to pick up my trash,’ ” Cohen said.

Several of the students said they were there because their instructor offered extra credit to participate in events related to Earth Day.

Marketing junior Scott Dunham, vice president of Phi Sigma Kappa, participated for the extra credit, but told other members of his fraternity because, “a few of them still needed service hours.”

“Why wouldn’t you do it?  It’s a nice day,” Dunham said. “It directly benefits us because we’re going to walk to class tomorrow and it’s all going to look better.”

Julia Lepping, a 2008 UK graduate, pulled recyclable materials from a trash can next to Memorial Hall, something she’s done since high school, she said.

She was at the clean-up to take care of and show respect for the Earth that sustains us, she said.

Other participants decided to come simply because it was a good cause that was convenient.

“I had nothing better to do and this is a good thing to do,” said music education junior Joe Saputo. “That’s pretty much it.”