Tag: christmas

Collecting Discarded Christmas Trees to Enhance Local Wetlands

Southeastern is asking area citizens to give the environment a gift after Christmas.
 
Turtle Cove and its partners are providing Christmas Tree Recycling, allowing discarded Christmas trees to be dropped off and used for wetland restoration rather than thrown out with the trash.
 
“Recycled Christmas trees can be put back to work in our area marshes, while also reducing the waste going into landfills,” said Rob Moreau, manager of Southeastern’s Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station, located on Pass Manchac between Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas.
 
Although grant funding from the state programs for Christmas tree recycling in many areas ended years ago, local partners stepped up to keep the project going. This marks the 30th straight year Southeastern has conducted its recycled tree program. Each year students from Moreau’s environmental awareness class, as well as volunteers from the local community, have helped to deploy the trees into areas needed most in the Manchac Swamp Wetlands. This year, Turtle Cove Education/Outreach Coordinator Ariel Ebanks is teaching the class and will lead students in the deployment of the trees in mid-March. Approximately 45,000 trees have been deployed through the Southeastern program in the past 29 years.
 
Southeastern scientists and volunteers at Turtle Cove use the discarded trees to help build up marshland in areas that have been impacted by erosion and other factors, said Moreau.
 
Moreau explained that the trees will be used in a variety of ways, creating new habitats for wildlife and, of course, helping to control erosion along various shorelines, most recently occurring on Galva Canal and in areas around the research station itself on Pass Manchac and the boatshed/parking lot area at Galva Canal.
 
This practice also provides hands-on environmental education opportunities for students and other volunteers who help with the project.
 
Collaborating on the project for the 10th consecutive year is the Southeastern Sustainability Center, which will serve as a drop-off point for area residents to leave their used Christmas trees. Other primary partners include the city of Hammond, city of Ponchatoula, Middendorf’s Restaurant in Manchac, and the Hammond Downtown Development District. Several local tree farms and other businesses usually jump in on the action as well in terms of providing leftover trees.
 
Trees can be dropped off through March 5 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Hammond maintenance facility, located at 18104 Hwy. 190 next to Piggly Wiggly Supermarket. Trees should be dropped off using the gate on Falcon Dr. next to Piggly Wiggly. During these same dates, city of Ponchatoula residents can drop off trees anytime at 385 North 4th St. by the fence. 
 
The Southeastern Sustainability Center, located at 2101 North Oak Street, will collect trees beginning Jan. 6 through the end of the month from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Fridays. Moreau said a Turtle Cove trailer is maintained at Middendorf’s Restaurant, so diners going there can also drop off trees.
 
Starting this year, two new partners are joining the effort: The Hammond Farmers and Artisans Market will serve as a drop-off location with more information forthcoming, and St. John The Baptist Parish will also be collecting trees and bringing them to Manchac. Curbside pickup can be scheduled in St. John the Baptist Parish by calling Public Works at 985-652-4815, and will take place on Thursdays through Feb. 13.
 
“The city of Hammond will again provide transport of collected trees from Hammond and Ponchatoula to the Turtle Cove Galva Canal parking lot area in Manchac, where they will be stored until they are deployed in the marshes in the spring,” Moreau said. 
 
For all of these sites, no flocked trees will be accepted, and all trees should be stripped of any ornaments, lights, tinsel, stands, nails and screws, etc.
 
“This greatly helps our efforts to get the trees quickly deployed,” Moreau said.
 
For more information, contact Moreau at rmoreau@southeastern.edu, Ebanks at Ariel.Ebanks@southeastern.edu, or visit the website at southeastern.edu/turtlecove. 
 
Donations to help support the activity can be sent by check payable to Southeastern Foundation – c/o Turtle Cove and mailed to Southeastern Box 10585, Hammond, LA 70402, or can be made by credit card through the Turtle Cove website under the donations link.

Caring Doesn’t Take a Break

One Staff Member’s Unexpected Journey into Filling a Gap for International Students

By Brock Sanders

Josh Randall, the production manager at Southeastern’s Document Source Print and Mail Center, started the Fall 2023 semester with a surprise visit from a student asking about mail. The simple interaction between Randall and Imole Olugbola, a student from Nigeria studying music performance, opened the doors to a problem in dire need of a solution.

Olugbola had come to the Mail Center to ask about the delivery of his Social Security card, which would allow him to work at the on-campus dining services. Working on campus provided Olugbola with finances to pay for his off-campus apartment and not need transportation to work. However, the card never came in after weeks of asking. Randall took it into his own hands to produce results that the Social Security card office was not providing to Olugbola.

“Let’s just get in my Jeep and drive to the Social Security office to figure this out,” Randall said.

The pair were told that the paperwork had gone through some rerouting but would arrive. Olugbola received his paperwork days later and was able to work on campus. However, this wasn’t the end of their friendship.

Randall inquired about his new Nigerian friend at lunch after the mystery of the lost Social Security card was solved. Olugbola grew up in an impoverished area of Nigeria, according to Randall, and learned how to play the violin at his local library where YouTube was accessible on the free computers. He later moved to Hammond, Louisiana, on a scholarship to play the violin in the Department of Music and Performing Arts.

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Throughout the semester, Randall readily kept up with Olugbola until the cusp of finals in November. It was then that the international student came to the Mail Center asking about job opportunities over the winter break when the university would be shut down.

Due to departments being closed, Olugbola would be out of a job for close to three weeks. An initiative to produce results and try to find a solution drove Randall down a rabbit hole of more questions than answers.

Lack of a work visa or transportation posed a precarious situation in finding a job for one international student and an even larger problem when Ogubola introduced his friend.

“[Ogubola] came in one day and asked, ‘Mr. Josh, I have a friend who is in the same shape and needs a job, can you help him too?’” Randall said.

Curious as to how many other international students were in the same boat as Ogubola and his friend Ayomide Olubuse, Randall asked if a poll could be done. The survey, conducted by Olubuse, produced a list of 34 students at Southeastern from Nigeria who were going to be without a job or family during the winter break.

“It was Christmastime, and you can’t go pinching pennies at Christmastime. That’s not what we do here,” said Randall.

Randall, again, pushed himself to try harder.

He contacted business owners, department heads, and members of the Greater Hammond Chamber of Commerce to give these students a chance to not only live but thrive during the four-week break.

“If there is something that can be done, why can’t it be done?” Randall said, living by the mantra to help people where help is needed.

This urge to help flows into his pastimes, where he is a volunteer fireman; assistant director at his local youth association in Springfield, Louisiana; and the owner of a 20-year-old jeep club.

Randall said he only brings problems to the table if solutions are readily available. He proposed that departments that have to work over winter break and have room on their budget from students who return home promote those open positions for students who are eager to work. Forming a network of business owners who could offer jobs for short periods could also open a larger door for other international students that attend Southeastern.

Randall is hopeful and driven that he will do his part to be part of the solution. “I promise you I will do what I can to not let this happen again,” he said.

To further help combat this predicament, the Office of Student Engagement jumped in to arrange a food program to provide for international students remaining close to campus during the break through the Lion Pantry food pantry program. The Lion Pantry provides perishable and non-perishable items to any active Southeastern students who are in need of services throughout the year, and during breaks, this critical resource can make an especially big difference to members of the campus community.

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Within the Office of Student Engagement, Southeastern’s Multicultural and International Student Affairs (MISA) office provides support services, along with social and leadership opportunities, to international students throughout the year, including hosting a popular International Night and housing international student organizations. MISA and other university departments are continuing to investigate additional ways to make sure all students have everything they need to achieve a successful and happy experience at Southeastern, no matter the time of year.

There are close to 160 international students currently enrolled at the university, a number which continues to rise as Southeastern’s reputation for academic excellence mixed with caring support in a welcoming community continues to grow across the globe.

During the Hammond Christmas Parade in December, Southeastern President William Wainwright was adamant that a magnet be placed on one of the floats stating “We love our international students.”

“At Southeastern, you matter here,” Randall said. “I live by that.”