Student Contributor -T. Prestegord
This projects is designed to get the students involved with the community around where they live. The City of Cheney has groups of people go around the area collect garbage and recyclables off of the streets. The idea is to get the students to take pride in their community and help make it clean. This leads us to the idea of how we can help keep community around us clean as well.
When we go out to Sutton Park on the Saturday that it takes place on we meet with a group form the City of Cheney. Upon arrival we split up the students depending on how many chaperones there are. We then pick out different parts of the community that we will split up and go out and work on. When we get out into the community we will be picking up garbage found on the side of the road. It helps out our community because we are getting the litter thrown out by people and making the community cleaner and safer to be in. This projects was powerful to the students because they were getting the opportunity to make their community look better and feel safer. With cleaning up the litter, students are seeing how a little bit of work can help out the community.
The project as a whole was a lot of fun for all those involved. Getting students to come on a weekend can be difficult so making sure you are getting in contact with parents is something that needs to happen right away. As for modification and advice, there are many things you need to account for. Try and have your groups be put on streets with less traffic to be safer with kids. Make sure you are looking out for things such as broken glass and things like that. These can be a safety hazard so talking about how to pick these things up before you get out there can help diminish the chances of students putting their self in harm’s way.
I really love the idea of this project, it is very similar for what I chose to do for my civic engagement project. I like that you have included chaperones to help, as it can get hectic trying to do it on your own with your classroom. I also really like that they were able to go out of the comfort of their school and go to a park to pick up litter. Did students have to get permission slips signed from parents- or what did that look like? Helping pick up litter is a great way for students to bond with their classmates and peers, while doing something helpful, positive, and impactful for the community.