Done in an hour: Slippery Rock University Greek life makes quick work of planting project
SLIPPERY ROCK — The Slippery Rock Rotary Club was “only planting 7,000 tulips” on Saturday morning, Oct. 25.
Regina Greenwald, coordinator of Slippery Rock In Bloom, a project of the Rotary Club, said the group usually plants 10,000 tulip bulbs in and around Slippery Rock Memorial Park, so the reduction of 3,000 seemed like a big difference. Although it was still a large undertaking — the park’s flower beds needed to be refurbished with new mulch — the Rotary Club had a lot of help from more than 150 students of Slippery Rock University.
Thirteen fraternal organizations from the university helped to not only plant the tulips, but clean up Main Street in Slippery Rock, which is a twice-a-year project for the Rotary Club.
Joe Hemple, president of SRU’s chapter of Theta Chi, said service is a big part of Greek life on campus — and the work students were doing Saturday morning was not too bad to begin with.
“For my chapter we try to get everyone to do 10 community service hours a semester,” Hemple said. “It was better this year than it was last year.”
Tulips are replanted at the park in the spring and in the fall, and Greenwald said the Rotary Club gets help from Slippery Rock borough in removing the plants each year around May, and the bulbs are then given away around SRU’s graduation ceremony.
The Rotary Club also performs all the fundraising to buy the tulip bulbs, and to pay the borough to help with some of the landscaping work at Memorial Park. However, Greenwald said she is always happy to get the students of SRU involved in the efforts, because the park is integral to the school’s campus. In addition to Greek life organizations, students from other campus clubs helped with the work Saturday as well.
“This is their park — they can come take pictures here in the spring, it’s phenomenal for graduation pictures,” Greenwald said. “Their parents who had went to school here years ago say it never looked this good when they were here.”
The planting took about an hour to complete, and the students and Rotary Club started the work around 9 a.m. Saturday. As for the town clean-up, Hemple said different student organizations just took on a street or two each, so they also made quick work of their assignments.
Greenwald said the Rotary Club is open to working with the university and campus clubs and organizations as much as possible. SRU even has its own Rotaract Club, a college-level Rotary organization, which also sent students to help with the beautification Saturday morning.
With the number of students helping out Saturday morning, Greenwald said the members of the Rotary Club who showed up mainly had to be there just to help facilitate the mulch beds.
“We work together to do all the plantings, coordinate the flowers, the colors,” Greenwald said.
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Slippery Rock University students clean-up trash on Main Street in Slippery Rock, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Slippery Rock University students clean-up trash on Main Street in Slippery Rock, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Slippery Rock student Emma Williams helps collect trash on Main Street in Slippery Rock, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Slippery Rock student Julia Miller helps collect trash on Main Street in Slippery Rock, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Slippery Rock University student Isaac Hightree plants tulip blulbs at Slippery Rock University, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Slippery Rock University students plant tulip bulbs to bloom in the spring at Slippery Rock University, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Slippery Rock University students plant tulip bulbs at Slippery Rock University, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Slippery Rock University students plant tulip bulbs at Slippery Rock University, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Regina Greenwald with the Slippery Rock Rotary Club introduces tasks to students assisting with the tulip planting and street clean-up at Slippery Rock University, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Regina Greenwald with the Slippery Rock Rotary Club introduces tasks to students assisting with the tulip planting and street clean-up at Slippery Rock University, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Slippery Rock University student Mary Martyn plants tulip blubs at Slippery Rock University, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Slippery Rock University student Mary Martyn plants tulip blubs at Slippery Rock University, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
