Oxford Charm Inspires Ole Miss Student To Keep Surrounding Areas Beautiful

Update: Here’s a photo of the group of friends and Ole Miss students who trash picked up at Sardis.

When Florida native Claire Chisholm visited Ole Miss over four years ago, she fell in love with far more than what the Princeton Review called “The Most Beautiful Campus.”

She fell in love with Oxford, and even more-so with a popular college-aged hangout spot often referred to as “the End of the Road.”
On Highway 314, just outside of Oxford, the Old Sardis Road access point overlooking Sardis Lake has long been a place Chisholm admired.
After a more recent visit, however, Chisholm wasn’t pleased with what she found.
“I was out there a few weeks ago… well, basically every time I’ve ever been out there, there’s always so many beer cans and soda cans and just all sorts of trash,” she said. “It was getting in the water, and people were just stepping on them. It was just destroying the beauty of it.”
Chisholm, who was inspired by her grandfather to be a helping hand in keeping a clean environment, took it upon herself to organize a group of volunteers this Saturday to do just that.
“I thought that if I could get enough people out there to pick it all up, it would just make a big difference,” she said. “I’ve always had a passion for keeping the environment clean and natural, the way it should be.”
Chisholm and about 15 other volunteers are meeting at “The End of the Road” at noon, Saturday, March 4, to begin the “Sardis Lake Clean-up.” While volunteers are welcome and can help however long they wish, Chisholm herself will stay for “however long it takes.”
“[Oxford’s] been my home away from home for four years,” she said. “I just fell in love with Oxford, and it’s definitely important to me to keep it just as beautiful as it was when I got here.”

By Randall Haley, executive editor of HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at randall.haley@hottytoddy.com.