Team Bonds While Beautifying Pittsburgh Area Park

The Carnegie Mellon University men's soccer team spent a Sunday afternoon bonding while beautifying a Pittsburgh area park. The team joined together to plant trees and mulch flower beds in Schenley Park for the Pittsburgh Conservancy.

Schenley Park is located next right next to campus and is frequented by students and community members daily.

"It was awesome to be able to go out as a team and do this community service," sophomore Jacob Rice said. "Everyone on the team took it seriously and we all had a great time doing the tasks. It was hard work, but we all had fun with it and we had some friendly competitions to see who could plant and mulch the most and fastest."

The team was originally tasked with planting trees in the disc golf course to provide barriers and scenery between holes but finished early and mulched flower beds with their remaining time.

"The community is supportive of CMU Soccer and sports, so it's great to be able to return the favor and help out at Schenley Park where so many people can enjoy the area better," Rice added. "Overall it was a very successful and rewarding day."

Choosing a community service project that envolved working as a team was key for the men's soccer team as well.

"To work as a team on this project was key because the day wouldn't have been as successful," sophomore Colin Shaffer said. "It took teams of four to move the trees, dig the holes, plant the trees, and then put on the finishing touches. Each tree was very heavy and had specific instructions as to how it needed to be planted. In many cases, it took intermixing of the groups of four to help get the trees planted. Helping the community was great and I look forward to continuing to do so over the remainder of my career at CMU."