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Yesterday was such a beautiful day! It was sunny and warm. The kids were all playing outside (in the mud). I decided to take my youngest two across the street to our little park to pick up some of the garbage left over from the winter.
Usually we go over a few times a year to clean it up. I haven't been there for about a whole year. There was so much garbage! We each took a bag to fill up, and we had to dump our bags three times back at home. I've never seen anyone else over there cleaning up. Just at the end of the street there were about 6 milk cartons stuck in the bushes. All the plastic bags... We cleaned up the leftovers of a teenager's party. It was quite an adventure - fishing cans out of a lake that had formed, climbing through bushes, and stepping in what my son called (quick sand).
April 19 is the United Way Day of Caring. Our Boy Scouts will be cleaning up the beach. Afterwards, lunch will be provided. That's great. It teaches the kids that in order to keep our world clean, we all need to work together. But why do we need a special day to clean up? EVERY day should be Earth Day! We should all work together to not only keep our beaches clean, but our neighborhoods, too. I've been looking at the garbage across the street for weeks now. No one else ever goes over to help. The Day of Caring will be filled with people.
This was my recycling can that was empty before we started picking up the garbage. This does not include the non-recyclables that were thrown in the regular cans.
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20 comments:
Good for you, Maria. That's a great thing to teach the kiddos.
Next to drinking and driving, few things burn me up as much as litter and people just trashing things and being lazy about properly disposing of their junk. In the Southwest where we live, I've seen people throw beer cans and fast food bags full of trash out their windows on the freeway. Grrrr!
Anyway, I'm glad to know there are other moms out there teaching their kids the importance of keeping things clean. ;)
You are an excellent example for your kids. I wish more people were like you.
What a great service project for your neighborhood and the earth.
I can't believe the MILK JUGS. Seriously, what's up with people??
You are a good, good example to your children.
What a great thing for you and your kids to do! If only more people were out there doing this stuff too........
Good for you for cleaning up without grumbling. I would be grumbling the whole time. Not because I had to clean up, but because nobody else helped. I hate how people use the earth as their trashcan.
Aggravation is a fun game. It's kinda like 'sorry' where you get to send people back to their base and you try to get to 'home' to win. It's with marbles, and kinda long, so playing with a 4 year old can get tedious. But it's fun for the older kids. :) I reccomend it.
What a great example you are setting for your kids! I wish more people would get involved and help clean up our parks, forest preserves and neighborhoods. If everyone did just a little bit, it would make such a huge difference! Of course, people need to stop throwing their garbage on the ground to begin with, I don't know what is up with that when there are garbage cans all over the place! Is it really that hard? What really disgusts me is when I'm waiting at a red light and someone rolls down their window and empties their garbage or ashtray all over the ground. Some people are just so ignorant!
This is a great post Maria! Thanks to the Boy Scouts, too, hope their clean up day is a huge success!
Lizzy
What a wonderful way to teach good citizenship to your children! You're a great Mom.
God bless.
BTW, Eric made so much fun of me when I referred to, umm, "those" bushes you mentioned. I now try to refer to them as 'jagger' bushes. I always thought our term was common knowledge, but maybe not?
Anyway, I thought you'd like to know he got a kick out of your post today and really wanted to comment. I didn't let him..
That's brilliant Maria - good for you. If we all did a little bit, the world wouldn't be in the state it's in. x
Milk jugs??? At the park? Good heavens.
What a great thing to teach your children.
I'm so impressed! What a great thing you do for your community. Our neighborhood recently adopted the main road and we do litter pick-up as a community. They always seem to plan the deal (when the city gives us the garbage pokers and the pretty orange vests) for when WE have plans, but my FIL has participated several times. My kids want to do it, but it's a shoulderless main road and the older two are only 3 and 5, so I don't think that's quite appropriate yet, but we HAVE done some clean-up at our park when we notice stuff on the ground.
You've done a great job teaching your children how to be respectful of the environment!
That is great that you involved the kids in cleaning up. Growing up I was warned to not litter, waste water or electricity. Funny I didn't think much about it then. At the beach they have a festival every summer. We learned so much about litter and how long it takes to disintegrate. You would be amazed how long it takes cigarette butts, diapers, and glass jars. I wish I could remember the specifics on how many things took literally thousands of years to disintegrate. Our local television station now has weekly episodes on the green movement. I guess the adults really knew what they were talking about when we were kids.
How sad that a mother and her little ones have to feel the need to pick up after a bunch of adults (assuming because of the beer party). Can you just imagine how beautiful this world would be if everyone would pick up after themselves instead of leaving it for someone else or just not caring at all. We live in the country on a mountain and it breaks my heart to drive down these roads and see the trash that is tossed out on a regular basis. I applaud you for teaching your children at a tender age the right thing to do.
Great job, Maria and gang! We are a family of recyclers too. I am just waiting for some warmer weather so we can get out and do some cleaning up as well.
Send the warm weather this way, please!!! =)
Good for you. Your example and the values that you are passing on to your children are making an impact. Not just today with that recycling can, but tonight in my neighborhood with my children too.
We recycle here too. The schools do it, so the kids came home and insisted that I do it too. We just started curb-side recycling in my town and I am thrilled!
Kimmy
WTG on cleaning up and setting such a great example for your kids. YOuknow do you ever realize how much extra packaging is in everything too much trash everywhere :(
Yeah for you...and you are teaching your kids a wonderful thing!
Good for you for getting your kids involved to help clean up! My son, as a Scout, often cleans the rivers, parks and highways around here - it is a good thing!
Have a good evening - see you - Kellan
I agree, Maria...every day should be earth day. Also, things should be done because things should be done...even if they are serving lunch!
Thanks for the post. Theresa
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