Linda Cullen
- I chose the River’s Alive cleanup as my outreach project. I saw all the trash left on the side of a major road in Athens and down by the river near it. There were so many pieces of trash all over the MLK Greenway. I was with a group of about 20 other people, which included people from our class and other volunteers. I worked with another student to pick up trash together. She held the trash bag while I used the grabber to pick up the trash and put it into the trash bag.
- I expected there to be a lot of trash, but there was so much more than I expected. I was very surprised to see the high amount to trash all over the MLK Greenway. I was also upset at how careless and lazy people can be by throwing their trash on the side of the road instead of taking the extra second to throw it away in the proper disposal area. I was happy to see all the people who volunteered their time to clean up the trash. There were so many more people than I expected there to be, which I was glad to see.
- This experience was very useful in giving me a first hand look at how common trash pollution is in our communities. While I always knew that littering was a problem, seeing the effects right in front of me really showed how big of an issue it is. I learned what to pick up on my own and what to alert the leader about, like things that would be dangerous to touch or things I don’t recognize. What I learned in class also helped me understand how important it is to keep our watersheds and roads clean.
- Now that I know how prevalent littering and pollution is in our community, I will do my best to clean up after myself and others. I will also try to do more volunteer work to help our environment, as well as educating others on the importance of keeping the earth clean.