Spanning six acres, the organic Red Hill Farm, adjacent to the Neumann University campus, is a major environmental initiative of the Sisters of Saint Francis feeding 120 families. Litter from the surrounding community also turns it into a mess.
On April 4, 2021, as part of Neumann’s Earth month activities, students from Sr. Diane Tomkinson’s Theology 203 class as well as two other staff members, Sr. Mary Ann and Tara Convery, decided to clean it up.
“As part of this course, Contemporary Christian Spirituality, we are finding spirituality in things we can do every day, both to deepen our spirituality, and to act and do service. For NU as a whole, service is part of our RISES values. This service was also celebrating the Franciscan tradition and imitating St. Francis in our Care for Creation,” said theology student Will Germani.
The clean-up started at 1:00 p.m. and ended around 3:00.
“We gathered at the Neumann Circle at 12:45 p.m. to register and pick up supplies (gloves and trash bags), then walked to Red Hill farm, located on the corner of Red Hill & Convent Rd,” said Tomkinson in an email.
Students kept away by Covid considerations joined the group online. They joined via Microsoft Teams for an opening prayer and then logged back in at closing to report what they learned.
The students and faculty members on site found a lot of waste. In addition to plastic bottles and bags, they found glass bottles, cigarette butts and wet wipes.
All the students agreed this clean-up felt very fulfilling. “It felt good to do something good for the community and with good results, especially after we gathered all that we collected and realized how much we picked up,” said Germani.
