So far, my group and I have completed a total of 3 nature clean-ups. This semester we have not been able to complete one as a group all together. Either two members were away, or one could not make it. We were so pleased when we were finally able to all go together on Monday. We did a nature clean-up at Glen Park for around an hour and a half. During this clean-up we were surprised to see a little more garbage then we expected to but we assumed it’s because the weather is getting nicer, and more people are enjoying time outdoors. As a team we managed to collect about 3/4 of a large garbage bag full. This bag contained many different pieces and sizes of trash which was scattered throughout the park. This includes items such as take out food trash, plastic water bottles and candy wrappers. We really enjoyed watching the park become cleaner and cleaner as we cleaned and hope to do it again as a group soon!
My group and I had around 3 main successes. Firstly, there was more trash than we expected. This meant that this was more of an opportunity for our group to clean the park more. Since all our group members were present we had more hands to be able to complete more work. Although we were a bit shocked by how much trash was left, we realized that it was probably due to the weather getting nicer and people going out more. This leads me to our second greatest success. After many cold, windy, rainy and dark nature clean-ups, we were very excited to complete one on a day which had decent weather. It was not too sunny or too cold, it was the perfect temperature for a nature clean-up as well as having a great amount of daylight still out. Our last biggest success, and in my opinion the most incredible one was finally being able to complete a nature clean up as a group. We were hoping to be able to increase our number of clean-ups this semester by working on our scheduling. However, it seems that this semester more responsibilities and other personal things kept coming up. For the last two clean-ups there was only either two or three of us. Therefore, we were very happy that all our schedules aligned and we were able to complete one!
Some of the challenges we faced were choosing a location which worked for everyone as well as finding a date where everyone was available to meet up. These two challenges are ones we experience everytime we’re planning a nature clean-up. It’s so frustrating for us to not have solved this problem yet however, it’s not something we can control. Life happens and other have things which come up or responsibilities elsewhere. We also live in very different areas and we must consider everyone being able to get home on time and safely. Despite this we were able to choose the location of Glen park which was suggested by one of my group members which lived in the area. We were also able to find a day where we were able to meet up and hope to find more days where this is possible!
Next in our plan together as a group we hope to complete one more nature clean-up before the end of the semester. Its almost june which means we would only have one month left of school. Although, this seems like a long time, we each still have school, extra curriculars, jobs and most importantly finals and end of the year projects for school. Ending the schoolyear seems to always be the busiest so we’re hoping we can find a day where we’re available. As a group we really enjoy these clean ups to help make our community cleaner and safer for kids and wildlife in our area. We hope to complete one more to have a cleaner and better space for others to enjoy outdoors and we encourage others to do the same!