Cleaning for a Cause

Rubber gloves + Buckets + Rags + Vacuums= Thank you. This past Tuesday the Luther student-athletes had the opportunity to thank our custodians that maintain our locker rooms and workout facilities by giving them the day off. That meant that we got to don the rubber gloves and get down to business.

I must not clean very often because I had a great time vacuuming, scrubbing down handrails, and wiping the fingerprints off of the glass doors in Regents! I worked for an hour and a half, but the time flew by much faster than I ever expected it would. Plus I felt like I had accomplished a lot more than I often do when I do homework for that long! I won't lie,though, I was really glad that I didn't get toilet duty.

Most of the custodians actually didn't take the day off, but came to work to do other tasks that don't get done frequently. Even though they were still working, they were very appreciative of our efforts to give them a hand. I have come to realize how great of a job the custodians do at keeping our facilities in tip-top shape. It's amazing the transformation that takes place in our locker room after a weekend of track meets, softball games, and golf practice. On Sunday night there might be a trail of mud leading into the showers and paper towels overflowing from the trash can. But come Monday morning everything is clean and refilled. Our custodians not only do great work, but they do it in a very friendly and caring way. They'll vacuum around you and stop their work of cleaning the showers if you need to get in. I really appreciate their flexible and friendliness whenever I run into them in Regents.

With only 9 days of classes left and stress levels rising before finals, maybe we should all take some time to clean. Maybe the feeling of accomplishment will run over into finishing the lingering projects...or maybe not. At least the lemony-fresh smell might keep us awake enough to actually turn in the project that finally got done!