SGA’s Back to the Boro

Rowan students gave back to the community last weekend with the second annual Back to the Boro event. Students volunteered all over Glassboro to landscape, paint and offer their help with several other services.

“I know that Glassboro might think we are annoying sometimes, but we do things like this to show that we are not,” said Brian Smith, a junior psychology major.

SGA’s Back to the Boro is an event that takes place in the Glassboro community. Rowan student organizations gather to celebrate the community and help local residents.

“Groups [did] some raking, window washing, painting, weeding and mulching. These are the more popular tasks that teams are going to do,” said Maria Cristina DePierro, SGA special events director.

Over 150 groups signed up this year – 60 more than last year – and were sent to different areas in the town.

“From two years ago, this event has come a long way,” said Elizabeth Kolakowski, SGA public relations director. “This event began with eight people working all day, and now it is such a success.”

Student teams are assigned jobs according to how many people are in the group and how many people are needed for the job.

“The houses sign themselves up. We check them, and if it is a safe environment for students … they are approved for the event,” DePierro said.

This year, the applied behavior analysis group worked on two houses on Harper Drive.

“We did jobs such as cleaning the first story windows and straightening up the yard,” Smith said. “We did things for the yard such as raking and picking up the leaves.”

Habitat for Humanity also joined the project by helping with the yard work, laying down mulch, cleaning the gutters and cleaning the sidewalk for two local neighbors.

“It’s important to help everyone. It’s also important that we care about the community because we live here and so do the residents of Glassboro,” said Dustin Andersen, a sophomore electric engineer major.

The event is important to many people in the Rowan community as well as the Glassboro community.

“I think that this is such an important event for the Glassboro community because it shows the residents that although we are college students, we care about where we live and who we live with,” DePierro said.

Smith believes that this event is a great event because it will build a better future relationship with the community. He said the applied behavior analysis group wanted to help the course of the community by volunteering their time to help someone.

“The event was such a great success,” DePierro said. “I hope that everyone goes back out for the event next year.”