Oil drums once filled with crude that powers cars and trucks will soon serve another useful purpose, thanks to a group of University of Miami students who converted the barrels into collection bins that will help keep the streets of Miami’s Little Haiti free of litter.
Participating in the UM Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development’s annual Orientation Outreach service day at the Little Haiti Cultural Center on Saturday, about 270 first-year and transfer students repurposed more than 30 of the drums, painting them in Haiti’s vibrant national colors of blue and red.
The bins will be placed throughout commercial and residential areas in Little Haiti’s Northeast Second Avenue corridor—an area the UM students also helped to beautify on Saturday by removing graffiti, spreading mulch at a housing complex, and sorting through donations of clothes and toys at the Little Haiti Thrift and Gift Shop.
Butler Center director Andrew Wiemer said this year’s Orientation Outreach, held for the first time in one community instead of multiple neighborhoods, was a tremendous learning opportunity for students because it allowed them to “learn more about and give back to ” one of Miami’s most historic districts.
The Northeast Second Avenue Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to the revitalization of Little Haiti, partnered with the Butler Center on the event.
Up next for Butler Center: ’Canes for a Change week, September 7-11, which invites nonprofits to campus to educate students about more volunteer opportunities.
