by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
Chelsea Armstrong, director of ASUNM Community Experience, said Fall Frenzy was a success, despite difficulties in recruiting volunteers.
Armstrong, who organized the Sept. 30 event, said in the end, it didn't matter how many people volunteered, but the kind of people who donated their time.
"I was upset about it at first, but quality is more important than quantity," she said. "I just left with a really good feeling."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Armstrong said sororities and fraternities on campus did not participate in this year's event as much as in previous years.
This is the first year people have been allowed to participate without signing up, she said, so there were several groups of friends who showed up at the last minute.
Fall Frenzy, which is in its third year, is an event where students volunteer to help clean up campus. Armstrong said it is meant to make campus attractive before Homecoming on Oct. 8.
She said her favorite project was planting bulbs around campus.
"You can come back in the spring and see all those flowers," she said.
Student Kate Morton, who helped plant irises and daffodils next to the Duck Pond, said she did not mind doing manual labor for free.
"It's rewarding, not hard," she said.
She said planting the bulbs was a good project.
"It's beautification," she said. "People can be walking by, and a flower will brighten their day."
Student Leona Morgan, who was painting curbs near Dane Smith Hall, said the event is a good way to make the campus more attractive.
"We get satisfaction for helping make this campus - which we pay so much to attend - more beautiful," she said.
Morgan participated in the event with other members of the Kiva Club. She said her group usually does community service on American-Indian reservations, and Fall Frenzy gives them a good opportunity to do community service around campus.
She said this is the first time her group has participated in the event.
Student Autumn Chacon, who was painting curbs with Morgan, said her group will probably participate again.
Morgan said she hopes the group gets assigned a job besides painting curbs next year.
"It would get a little monotonous," she said.
Volunteers worked from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and had a picnic after they were done working.
Armstrong said about 180 people signed up for the event, and about 100 actually participated. About 180 people participated last year, she said.
The event cost about $800. The food for the picnic, catered by Dos Hermanos, cost about $550, Armstrong said. She said the rest of the money went to rent tables and chairs for the picnic.
All the supplies for working, such as shovels, mulch and paint were donated by the Physical Plant Department at UNM.
Armstrong said apart from the low participation, this year's event was better than ones in the past.
"I think it's gotten more organized, and we've tried to make it more enjoyable for our student participants," she said.
She said projects such as painting and planting flowers made Fall Frenzy more enjoyable.
"We tried to pick more fun projects," Armstrong said. "A lot of people don't like sweeping, picking up cigarette butts, that kind of thing."
Last year students mostly picked up trash around campus and cleaned graffiti.
Volunteers this year organized a storage closet at the Ronald McDonald House on North Campus and painted a bathroom at the Women's Resource Center.
Some volunteers cleaned the Cornell Parking Structure, which Armstrong said was a boring, but necessary, task.
"It kind of sucks, but it needs to be done," she said.
