During class on Tuesday April 28th, our class came
together to give back to the Elmira community. We divided our class into small
groups and spread across Elmira to pick litter throughout
several neighborhoods and parks surrounding our College. Although
picking up litter does not sound like much fun, our professor gave us a small
challenge by taking a picture of the most unusual
yet disgusting piece of garbage that we could find, which I found made this
activity interesting. The weather also made this activity a lot easier for us.
It was a beautiful, warm, and cloudless day, the perfect day to wonder around
Elmira cleaning up the community.
Our garbage bags and gloves in hands, Kyle, Jessica,
Meagan, and I headed to the train tracks prepared for almost anything. After
filling up two full garbage bags of trash, our school security approached us on
the tracks and mentioned us that we had to move to a different location for
security purposes. Throughout our small adventure both on the train tracks and
in a more residential area around Elmira, we picked up a countless number of
cigarette butts, gum rappers, animal bones, a weave, a mason jar containing
what looked like urine, plastic and glass bottles, as well as different plastic
items. I was truly surprised with both the amount of trash there was on
people's lawns as well as the different items we were picking up. I understand
the lost of a certain object to the wind but cannot wrap my head around to the
idea that people believe it is acceptable to just throw away something in the nature. Although
most people have a busy life, I always believed that people cared about
cleaning up both their lawns and the environment around their house to create a
safe environment for children in their neighborhood. I also thought it was
really interesting to see the reaction of the people in the community while we
were picking up trash either on their lawn or the sidewalk in front of
their house. Most people were happy and congratulated us for our action while
others were insulted that we were in their neighborhood. In the end, although
we got mixed reactions from the citizens of Elmira, it was a great
feeling to be able to do a small gesture for the community.
Our garbage bags and gloves in hands, Kyle, Jessica,
Meagan, and I headed to the train tracks prepared for almost anything. After
filling up two full garbage bags of trash, our school security approached us on
the tracks and mentioned us that we had to move to a different location for
security purposes. Throughout our small adventure both on the train tracks and
in a more residential area around Elmira, we picked up a countless number of
cigarette butts, gum rappers, animal bones, a weave, a mason jar containing
what looked like urine, plastic and glass bottles, as well as different plastic
items. I was truly surprised with both the amount of trash there was on
people's lawns as well as the different items we were picking up. I understand
the lost of a certain object to the wind but cannot wrap my head around to the
idea that people believe it is acceptable to just throw away something in the nature. Although
most people have a busy life, I always believed that people cared about
cleaning up both their lawns and the environment around their house to create a
safe environment for children in their neighborhood. I also thought it was
really interesting to see the reaction of the people in the community while we
were picking up trash either on their lawn or the sidewalk in front of
their house. Most people were happy and congratulated us for our action while
others were insulted that we were in their neighborhood. In the end, although
we got mixed reactions from the citizens of Elmira, it was a great
feeling to be able to do a small gesture for the community. 