The fifth annual Sophie Crestani Castle Street Clean-up took place last Friday, attracting a disappointingly small turnout. Few members of the Castle St fraternity showed up, with the majority of initial attendees being either Caroline Freeman College residents or Hold On To Your Friends (HOTYF) event organisers – one of whom Critic overheard saying, “We’re not second years anymore, not the same connections.”
The disappointing turnout led attendees to question the advertising of the events. Bella, one of the organisers, told Critic Te Ārohi that they did most of their advertising on Instagram, with various sponsors and supportive accounts spreading the word through their channels as well.
The initially poor turnout was partially supplemented by the group of second-year students who crawled out of their flats upon seeing that the clean-up was occurring. This group significantly improved the turnout at the event.
While it was the fifth year of the clean-up, Bella said it was the sixth event in total as HOTYF had managed to initiate two cleanups in 2023. They’re planning on hosting another street clean-up later this year, as event organisers hope to entrench the event into campus tradition.
Social Impact Studio manager Sze-En Watts told Critic that she loved “seeing the team from Hold On To Your Friends taking the lead on the clean-up.” Sze-En reported that the Social Impact Studio had helped run the Castle St clean-up in conjunction with others since 2020, before the student-led initiative HOTYF took over.
Tara, OUSA’s Welfare and Equity Rep, was the sole OUSA exec member at the event, describing it as “vibey.” Others enjoyed the event as well, commenting on the surprising lack of rubbish on Castle St.
Initial signs of poor turnout didn’t worry the organisers who reported that “it’s really awesome and everyone’s super willing to help.” Bella says the event was “such a good opportunity to do something meaningful [...] you don't often have opportunities to show that you love where you live. It makes you see all the good stuff which makes you proud to be a student.”