On Saturday, October 20th, I had the privilege of accompanying nine Butler students from the Interfaith Council and the CFV Scholars on a service project organized by Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, a local environmental organization involved with beautification projects designed to create or enhance green spaces in Indianapolis. We were joined by groups from IUPUI, IU School of Law, and other local citizens to plant 94 trees in the Riverside Neighborhood on the near-north side of Indianapolis, adjacent to Riverside Park.

The Butler students come from a number of backgrounds (Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, and secular), but each had similar reasons for participating in this service project. At a debriefing lunch following the project they spoke of feeling called by their religious and ethical traditions to care for the Earth, to enhance the lives of their neighbors with beautiful trees, to spend time with one another and make new friends while doing good in their community, and to protect Indianapolis’s waterways from pollution (each tree we planted will intercept about 100 gallons of water in each rainfall, water that would otherwise overwhelm Indianapolis’s sewer system and send raw sewage into our waterways).

The project directors from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful taught us how to prepare a tree for planting, how to dig a proper hole, how to plant the tree, and how to reuse the sod and mulch the tree to ensure that it will provide shade and beauty, shelter birds and insects, capture water and carbon dioxide long after all of us have gone. Residents of the neighborhood came out to greet us and thank us for planting trees in front of their homes and several of the residents were overjoyed to see that “their” trees had finally arrived. One resident, a recent immigrant from West Africa, was so excited that he spent two hours helping us dig, prune, and plant! The students engaged all of them in conversation and were pleased to put a human face with their morning’s work.

In our conversation afterwards back at Butler’s Center for Faith and Vocation, students were clearly energized and inspired by their work, despite having been up since before 8:00 on a Saturday morning. Every one of them was glad they participated and wants to do similar projects in the future. Furthermore, they agreed to spearhead an effort next year to include even more Butler students in KIB’s tree-planting projects so that more of their classmates could experience the joy of service in care of the environment and our community.

As a result of this project the students learned something important about interfaith engagement as well. Even though they come from different backgrounds and had specific motivations for caring for the Earth, they all ended up working together on the same project toward the same result. The Christian students shared biblical texts about the Earth as God’s creation and Christ’s command to serve others, the Muslim students shared Qur’anic texts about doing good for the neighbor and reflected on Zakat (charity), one of the Five Pillars of Islam, the Jewish student discussed the concept of tikkun olam (reparing the world) as a religious obligation, and the secular student reflected on their humanistic motivation to serve the neighbor and care for the Earth. Each student had their own motivations for engaging in this project, but they also learned about how other religious and ethical traditions conceive of the imperative to care for the Earth, its creatures, and our fellow human beings.

This kind of work is happening at Butler all the time, at the CFV, in Butler’s many student organizations, in the Greek houses, and through the annual BITS program (Bulldogs into the Streets). Many student organizations on campus require their members to complete hours of community service, so that students can put their learning into practice for the good of their communities. And if what I experienced on Saturday morning is any indication, these projects make a profound and lasting impact on everyone who participates in them, far beyond simply satisfying requirements for courses or membership in student organizations. So the next time you see a Butler student, I encourage you to ask them about the service projects they’ve done and prepare yourself to be swept away by their energy and enthusiasm!

Brent Hege

CFV Scholar in Residence and Instructor of Religion