Salt Lake Community College’s annual Beautification Day arrived again on May 24. Over the course of one sunny morning, students and faculty came together to plant flowers and tend to surrounding gardens at the South City, Taylorsville Redwood, Jordan and Miller campuses.
The event began with breakfast at each campus. Then, at the end of the day, participants gathered at the Redwood Gunderson Pavilion for a barbecue lunch, where volunteers cooled off after their work.
Halimat Ipesa-Balogun, a new staff member for the Workforce, Training and Education Department at Miller, said she participated in Beautification Day to give back to the spaces that serve the college community.
“I enjoy walking around the Miller Campus during my break time,” she said. “I like the trees and observing the planted things that are already there. I wanted to contribute to that.”
Ipesa-Balogun added that the event helped her connect with coworkers and students from all over the valley. “I think it really brought the campus community together,” she said. “There’s tons of people I don’t usually get to see on a daily basis, that I got to see while planting.”
Rhett Bigelow, who also works at Miller as a program manager and staff association representative, said beautifying the school benefits not only staff but anyone who comes to campus.
“It’s important to get to work and see something that’s nice and pretty – it’s more inviting,” Bigelow said. “It helps students and guests feel like they are welcome and [that] they can be here and belong.”
