Monday, February 2, 2015

Martin Luther King Day of Service

What a fantastic day at Abner Clay Park and Monroe Park!
Our class is so involved in the horridness of litter and ridding the world of it that we decided to stick with this idea to make Richmond a better place for children, and for all.
We were looking for another place to pick up trash and Anna suggested Abner Clay Park. One of the class groups had been interested in city playgrounds so this was a great choice. The class had remade their trash picker uppers and were ready to test them out.  So with backpacks full of supplies: gloves, spare gloves, sketchbooks and pencils, and re-designed trash picker uppers in hand we set off for Clay Abner Park.
Once there the children got right to work, they worked non-stop for over one hour, steadfastly ridding the park of litter.
They were amazed at how much litter there was. They commented on the signs that were there telling park goers not to smoke or drink alcohol, that glass was not allowed. They were appalled as they spotted hundreds of cigarette butts, and beer bottles and bottle caps.
They even found an old cell phone and a watch!
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Even the parents got involved! Tally's dustpan and brush was invaluable for sweeping up the litter! We weighed each bag as it was filled and ended up picking up about 40lbs of litter which we depositied in the trash cans right there in the park.
The children wondered why there was so much litter about as there were alot of trash cans!
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We ended the day at Monroe Park, meeting the rest of lower school and the preschool.
Even the weather co-operated - such a successful day!REL_1170
"This project was made possible by an award from Partners in the Arts."