Grand Rapids freshman Keri Achenbach dove head first into a bush Friday in search of cigarette butts.

“Jump like you’re in a mosh pit and see if the bush will carry you,” suggested Cassie Palmatier, a sophomore from Monroe.

Achenbach and Palmatier, along with Egypt senior Mariam Habib and Novi junior Jessica Westfall, organized Friday afternoon’s community service project to rid campus of cigarette butts.

The group of four students suited up in yellow latex gloves and armed themselves with clear trash bags to clean up the area surrounding Finch Fieldhouse and Charles V. Park Library. Two minutes after picking up his first butt, Steve Santoro had at least 80 cigarette butts in his bag.

“My parents were smokers, so I never tried it once,” said Santoro, a graduate student from Walker. “I’m surprised more people don’t take that attitude.”

The group hunched over the ground, finding the most butts near the edges of sidewalks and buildings.

“I didn’t realize how many cigarettes there actually were until I started picking them up,” Westfall said. “My back is going to be killing me tomorrow.”

As members of RPL 216: Intro to Outdoor Recreation, Achenbach, Palmatier, Habib and Westfall used the outdoor service project as a component to their larger mission of informing students about the hazards of smoking.

“We have like 60 posters around campus with facts about smoking and why not to do it. Some of them are pretty shocking,” Achenbach said.

The group also took the initiative to move one of the ashtrays in front of Kesseler Hall 25 feet away from the building.

Habib said they checked with CMU officials beforehand.

“We contacted Chad Garland, the Resident Hall Director of Kesseler Hall, and told him our plan to move the ashtray,” Habib said. “He was very supportive of the idea.”

The group will present their project at the Student Research and Creative Endeavors Exhibition on April 18.

“We want to fill up a jar with cigarette butts and put it next to our presentation,” Achenbach said.

After an hour and a half, the students filled more than half of a 13-gallon trash bag.

“We’re not excited to be picking up cigarettes, but we’re excited to be cleaning the campus and helping the environment,” Habib said.

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