Macy Flowers, a physical education major, collects trash deep in the brush with her campus basketball team at MSU’s Sikes Lake Cleanup initiative. (Alex Sinks)

On Sep. 9, 2023, MSU, in partnership with the Rolling Plains Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists, hosted its annual Sikes Lakes clean-up. The event began with students, staff, faculty and the Wichita Falls community at the lake at 8:45 a.m. to get breakfast and a quick briefing of how the day was going to go and the goals of the day. The lake clean-up began at 9 a.m. with volunteers gloved and ready to take on the lake.

Terry McKee, activities chair for the Rolling Plains Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists and event coordinator for the Sikes Lake clean-up, explained the process and the behind-the-scenes work for planning the clean-up.

From reaching out to individuals and organizations to the actual day, McKee addressed every single detail to ensure a successful clean-up.

“So, I have been doing the Sikes Lake clean-up since 2006 and we have made this an annual thing that we partner with MSU to do. We typically shoot for the first Saturday after Labor Day because it is a little cooler. We typically reach out to our contacts at MSU to get student, staff and faculty volunteers and we also reach out to local organizations, churches and so on and we always get a good turnout especially with MSU students which we are always glad to have. We also get Kyle Owens and his staff to come out and help take trash bags and pass out lunches. My goal and the goal of the Rolling Plains for the clean-up every year is to simply get people to care about their environment and to build a sense of community,” McKee said.

With a size of 21.5 acres, cleaning up the lake is not a task for an individual or a small group of individuals. Thankfully many were in attendance that morning either on their own or with an organization like Omega Delta Phi or the Student Nursing Association.

Haley Viera, senior nursing major and member of the Student Nursing Association shared her experience with the clean-up.

“I really like Sikes Lake. I think it’s something very unique to MSU and I don’t think a lot of Texas universities get to experience that. I also believe that it is very good to clean the lake because it accumulates a lot of trash from people just throwing stuff in it. Overall, I love the lake clean-up because I like to be a part in keeping Sikes Lake pretty,” Viera said.