As the spring semester at Marshall University brings in new life, new roots are starting to form again in the Parks and Recreation Organization for Students.
The club is full of life and filled with new seeds, ready to sprout and bloom again this semester.
“We’re not exclusionary,” PROS Vice President Tallin Rao said. “We’re welcoming to everyone.”
PROS is a club dedicated to making Marshall students active again and enjoy local hiking trails, local parks and even do environmental cleanups together.
Rao said PROS has an incredibly tight-knit community. They go to dinner together, they see movies as a group and are an organization that cares deeply about their members, even if they just joined.
“Our main focus is recreation,” Rao said. “Getting people outdoors because people don’t spend enough time outdoors anymore. We have all this wild area around here, and it’s a shame that so many people don’t go out and explore it. As much as possible, as often as possible, we want people to explore it.”
The club has hit the ground running for the spring semester, discussing fundraisers and future trips for the group.
While the spirits are high, the organization is primarily focusing on getting the necessary funds available for their group. With funding issues in the past, newly elected President Claudia Black explained they wanted to get funds to provide for nice trips and gather more members to join in their community.
“We’re planning an art workshop in the student center to do painting and teaching people about the native plants of West Virginia,” Black said. “In a world of technology, we always have something in our hand. I think we should just transfer that over to something that’ll ease the mind, learn a little bit and de-stress. I just think it’s good for everyone, so I wanted to open it up to the community as well.”
PROS also plans to hold a plant sale for Earth Day later this semester, using plants grown by the group in its greenhouse on campus. Until then, they will be tabling in the Memorial Student Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
PROS is ready to have themselves heard here at Marshall, though they did at one point have a period of inactivity. With their new president being a last semester senior, she has nothing but great plans to get the club known again and the necessary funding to keep themselves together not only this semester but with more semesters to come.
“I want people to be on their feet, stable,” Black said. “To have enough money to go and do fun stuff. Teach everyone this is what we do, this is how we do it, so we don’t have another five-year gap where we’re not active, people don’t know who we are. I just want to get us upstarted and going again. That’s why I was elected in.”
Soleil Woolard can be contacted at [email protected].
