Four-day environmental project involved ivy and oysters.
Students on top of an oyster pile by the York River.
Four Virginia Wesleyan students volunteered their time pulling miles of invasive English Ivy from the Weyanoke Wildlife Sanctuary and washing oyster shells by the York River in Gloucester, Va., over Spring Break 2008.
Michelle Neunzig '09, Korinda Rusinyak '10, Lan Tran '10 and Sean Westrom '09, participated in Virginia Wesleyan's Office of Community Service alternative Spring Break Experience, called IMAGINE. Through this program, the group partnered with two community agencies, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Weyanoke Wildlife Sanctuary of the Cape Henry Audubon Society, to improve the environment. In addition, the group received assistance from three additional students: Dorothy Allen '09, Roberta Polete '09 and Carmen Dawkins '10.
Neunzig, an elementary education major and site leader of the group, said she decided to participate in the project because she wanted to do something productive over Spring Break.
"Even though I am an education major, I thought it would be good to learn about the environmental issues that are occurring in the area around me," said Neunzig.
The four-day project was broken down into two parts. On Monday and Tuesday, the group pulled miles of invasive English Ivy from the Weyanoke Wildlife Sanctuary, a seven-acre woodland located along a creek bed in the west Ghent section of Norfolk.
On Wednesday, the students traveled to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester where they participated in washing oyster shells which will eventually form artificial reefs on which oysters will be grown. For five hours, the group put oyster shells in baskets, hauled them to a tumbler, tossed them in, and then retrieved and stacked the clean shells.
Westrom, an environmental studies major from Portsmouth, Va., said he enjoyed the entire trip and the experience gave him a hands-on understanding of his major.
"The best part of the trip was the friendships we made," said Westrom. "We all had a good time…everyone was laughing and having fun."
Diane Hotaling, director of Community Service, said the Imagine experience has been offered for 10 years and this year's trip was definitely a success.
"In reflecting with students, two science majors and two education majors, it was obvious that their appreciation for such settings amid urban and industrial communities had grown immensely. Their interest in the politics of land acquisition/preservation, the science of oysters as natural water filters, and the role of random citizens were heightened," said Hotaling, adding, "and they developed an opinion about English Ivy, too!"
03.28.08