PLATTEVILLE - Five University of Wisconsin-Platteville fraternities, including Alpha Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Omega-Tau Upsilon, Sigma Tau Gamma, Tau Kappa Epsilon and Theta Tau, have provided hundreds of service hours to help fix up and create the Platteville Community Arboretum (PCA).

The purposes for the community-based arboretum are education, recreation, conservation and the encouragement of cooperation within the Platteville community. The arboretum will exist along the Rountree Branch from the UWP campus to Mound View Park. Different parts of the arboretum will include landscaped gardens, groomed picnic facilities, restored prairie, managed woodlands and areas left in their current natural state. The arboretum will be maintained and managed as a non-profit organization through a cooperative effort of various individuals, interest groups and academic institutions within the community.

Gene Weber, PCA director, said, "The responsiveness from the fraternities has been phenomenal." He explained that when Scott Jeanquart, Forestville, of Alpha Gamma Rho (AGR) contacted PCA and learned they needed a shed (that was donated by United Building Centers) painted, he was at Heiser Hardware within minutes to pick up the discounted painting supplies provided by Tom Heiser. Jeanquart also arranged to have six fraternity brothers on site the very next day to help with blacktopping the trail at a time when PCA and the city volunteers needed the help. Without direction and on a timetable convenient to the Alpha Gamma Rhos, the shed was painted and the AGR went on to help on several other occasions.

The fraternities cut trees and brush near the skate park, so the PCA will be able to use the eight old railroad coal bins for storage on the DNR trail and possibly use that same area for future gardens: a children's garden and/or a community garden. They also moved dirt and planted seed, as well as put in a new picnic/garden area with a picket fence behind Country Kitchen with picnic tables and benches donated by Lands' End. David Canny, president of PCA, noted, "It is extremely obvious by their actions that the UWP fraternities really care about Platteville and want to give back to the community through 'improvement of quality of life projects' like those facilitated by PCA."

Kathy Kopp, PCA director and executive director of the Platteville Chamber of Commerce, noted, "The work these UWP organizations are doing is helping Platteville attract tourists and visitors to Platteville to enjoy the Platteville Community Arboretum including Katie's Garden, FORB trail, the new picnic area near Country Kitchen and the continuing growing list of PCA quality of life improvement sites."

Vinny Oliveri III, Burlington, student director of PCA and Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) public relations director, shared, "Working with groups like PCA whom are driven to improve quality of life for UWP students and the Platteville Community is the ideal community service that our TKE organization is dedicated to performing. This provides us a perfect opportunity to work with Platteville city government, business, financial, education and service groups and individuals for the betterment of Southwest Wisconsin."

The TKEs worked with PCA six times over the fall 2005 semester and volunteered over 100 hours of their time. Oliveri said, "I have to give credit to Tyler Watson of TKE for coordinating our 600 hours of community service for this semester. He created that goal at the beginning of the semester and worked tirelessly to achieve it." Watson, Elkhorn, was happy to report that the TKEs matched their goal of 600 hours and exceeded it with five additional hours. He explained that there are many reasons why the fraternity members get involved with philanthropy projects. He said, "Personally, I enjoy doing philanthropy related projects because it makes you feel better about yourself at the end of the day knowing that you may have just improved someone else's life. A lot of guys also enjoy doing it because it gives us time to spend together. It also helps better the community as a whole and it is our way of giving back to them."

(From: http://www.uwplatt.edu/news/2006/01/uwp-fraternities-help-platteville.html)