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April Action: Day of Service, Reflection
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Students weed and spread fertilizer near the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park for April Action on April 12. |
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Like Br'er Rabbit in the Uncle Remus tales, freshman Susan Dunn found herself elbow-deep in a briar patch on a recent Saturday morning.
One of about 150 University of San Francisco students taking part in April Action, Dunn was among a contingent of 20 who set to work cutting down blackberry bushes near the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park that were overgrowing and killing trees and other plants. After hacking away, the students loaded the prickly branches into a truck where they were carted off.
"I was scratched up and it was really hard, but it felt good to get a lot done," said Dunn. The April 12 day of service is an annual event organized by University Ministry to promote community service, social justice - in this case focused on the environment, as Earth Day approaches - and spiritual reflection.
"My group alone did in a few hours what it would have taken a parks worker a month to finish," said Dunn, repeating what her group had been told by a San Francisco Recreation and Park Department employee who worked alongside the students.
"The idea of April Action is to bring everyone together to focus on one project," said Kique Bazan, University Ministry associate director. "It's an opportunity for individuals, clubs, and athletes to participate and make a difference."
Bringing students together, once in the spring and again in the fall for October Outreach, is part of educating minds and hearts to change the world, Bazan said.
Other student groups pulled thistle from the buffalo pins near 36th and Fulton streets to keep the burs from tangling in the animals' fur, and spread fertilizer, pruned bushes, or cleaned up around the children's playground near Asbury and Oak streets.
By choosing to work in city parks, University Ministry leaders hoped to guide students in connecting their service to the greater idea of Earth Day, and issues of sustainability, said Eve Williams, a resident ministry intern in social justice at University Ministry who helped manage the event.
Volunteers showed up at 9:30 a.m. and worked until 12 p.m. Upon wrapping up, students took part in a spiritual reflection, discussing environmental issues and their impact on social justice - illustrated all-to-vividly when one of the groups had to take down the encampment of a homeless man, Williams said.
Finding the encampment raised ethical questions for the students during the spiritual reflection about why homeless encampments in Golden Gate Park are regularly taken down, whether that's the best response, and how environmentalism crosses over into other realms of social justice, Williams said. 
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