An update from Terry Smith of the Earth Ethics Team:

Thank you to all that helped with the Portal Branch Cleanup. John Kester had an excellent idea of bringing smaller bags that are a better size for an elementary age child to hold, then these could be emptied into the big yellow and blue bags supplied for us by RCC that adults could carry. Unfortunately, it was such a good idea that we used all his bags up during the 9:30 group, so we couldn’t do that with the 11:30 group.

 

The kids were very enthusiastic about the activity. Parents seemed uniformly appreciative. The activity draws the kids in. Ethan, for example, started out exploring the little “shelters” that vines had made last summer by growing over bushes. But he eventually picked up a few pieces of plastic and put them in a bag. Soon I heard him say, “I like this.” By the end of the session, he was fully engaged. I think the students feel good about doing something that they know is making a contribution to “the adult world.”

The 9:30 group did the south side of Portal Branch and the 11:30 group did the north side. Both groups reached their goal of cleaning from East Beach Drive to the wooden bridge.

 

Volunteers for Saturday, April 14th will meet at 9:00 a.m. at the south side of the bridge and work upstream toward 16th Street. We will be joined by Tanya DeKona from Takoma Park, who volunteered through Rock Creek Conservancy. Thank you Tanya.

 

Here’s hoping we have good weather again.

 

Best,

Terry Smith