UA Little Rock student volunteers helped clean up Coleman Creek in honor of Sustainability Day on Oct. 23. 

Students who volunteered include Seth Cook, Eireona Flowers, Jerrica Gipson, Caleb Head, Makira Hines, Kevin Jones-Benjamin, Willie LeBlanc, Cecily Mobley, DeShawn Parks, and Kameron Wayne. 

“I came to help clean up the cleanup the creek,” said LeBlanc, a junior mass communication major. “It’s important because there is wildlife that lives in and around the creek. It’s good for the environment.” 

Seth Cook, a biology graduate student and graduate assistant with the Emerging Analytics Center, was inspired to organize creek cleanup days after interning with the Sustainability Committee. 

“When I was an intern in 2015, I got involved with the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Campaign,” Cook said. “After my internship, I kept the connection and felt it was a good way for students to volunteer on campus.” 

It’s especially important to keep Coleman Creek clean because it empties into Fourche Creek. It’s considered the most important urban watershed in Arkansas, since the watershed drains and filters runoff from Arkansas’s capital city. 

“I’ve always had the sustainability mindset, especially since interning with the Sustainability Committee,” Cook said. “These cleanup days are important because this is our one opportunity to catch trash in Coleman Creek before in empties into Fourche. Who knows where the trash will go after that?”