Bears Volunteer Service to City
BERKELEY - The California rugby team volunteered its support on Saturday to clear several acres of land near the Berkeley Marine Overpass on the San Francisco Trail.
Equipped with pick axes, pruners and the power of teamwork, the Golden Bears removed dense shrubbery that had been choking out the border between the public walkways and the Dona Spring Animal Shelter near Highway 80. The team also cleared landscaping in the plaza at the north end of Berkeley Aquatic Water Park.
Explained coach Tom Billups, who managed the project, "We did some general landscape cleanup and planted some ivy, which will eventfully become a green wall and serve as graffiti abatement, along with an extensive hillside clearing from a tree line down to the animal shelter property."
Hacking through the tough foliage took several hours, filling a 10-cubic-yard container in a task that Shallon Allen, associate management analyst for the city manager's office, said would normally require a group of firefighters or similar skilled outfit to accomplish.
"I've worked with Berkeley projects for 12 years and we've never had a group like this before, a sports team with this stature and the diligence to work," she said. "They've gotten something done here today that we wouldn't normally be able do."
It was the second community service project of the semester by the Rugby Bears, following a 9/11 Heroes Run in September.
"We normally participate in community service projects in smaller groups and many of the guys have causes they support individually, but on this occasion we wanted something the team could but their backs into together, as a team," said head coach Jack Clark.
"This was full-stop hard dirty work for these students, the type of work others don't want to know about. The fact they attacked the job without a whimper of 'why us' just makes me, if possible, even more proud of these boys."
After their project was completed, the Bears returned to campus to continue tackling academics in the run-up to semester exams, after which the team will return in January for its spring 15s season.