Third through fifth grade students at Springhill Lake Elementary School got to spend 45 minutes outside on a gorgeous day and were all excited to aid in the cleanup of the small stream behind the school. “[The students] are always excited and incredibly helpful,” said Shana Sterkin, an instructional lead teacher at Springhill Lake Elementary. “They kind of feel powerful having an outlet to do something positive for the environment.”
The program started over two decades ago and both Sterkin and fifth-grade teacher Danielle Todd-Jones have taken it over since starting at the school. The event brings students outside of the classroom to participate in picking up trash along the stream behind the school, teaching students a sense of ecological responsibility. Sterkin and Todd-Jones partner with the Alice Ferguson Foundation, a public charity based in Accokeek that promotes ecological responsibility and educates young people about those principles, according to its website. The foundation aids the event by providing the gloves, bags and other supplies (in coordination with the City of Greenbelt) for the students and volunteers, said Sterkin. In return, Sterkin and Todd-Jones send them data gleaned from what they discovered.
The day started with the fourth graders and ended with the third-grade class cleaning up what remained both in the stream and around the watershed. Students were separated into groups of five to 10 and paired with one of the volunteers ‒ including Robert Goldberg-Strassler of the Greenbelt Plogs group ‒ aiding the educators. The groups were armed with gloves, a trash grabber and two bags (a yellow one for garbage, blue for recycling). The groups trekked back behind the school with their equipment and waded into the water and the surrounding area to hunt for debris.
Students found all sorts of objects from glass bottles to shopping carts filled with waterlogged leaves and cardboard. Larger objects like tires were also found in the stream. A group of students even found a child’s car seat. It took the whole small group to carry it to the trash area. Sadly, that’s not even the wildest thing Sterkin and her students have found over the years. Sterkin said they’ve found couches, mattresses and even a small motorcycle. “If you can imagine it, we’ve pretty much have found it in the stream,” Sterkin said.
The annual event empowers students to understand the responsibility each person has to keep their community clean and healthy. It teaches them personal responsibility, as well as other useful skills such as teamwork and communication. The students get to learn valuable skills and lessons with real life experience while improving their community in the process. “That’s one of my favorite parts, just seeing them help each other and kind of like leading the charge,” Sterkin said. “ … It’s just a great experience for them to kind of build that leadership role and help each other.”
The students enjoyed it so much that many disappointed sighs echoed the whistle alerting them to the end of their 45-minute cleanup session and the eventual continuance of their day in the classroom. The children’s wet boots sloshed on their way back into the school to change and celebrate by devouring pizza before returning to their regular class schedule.
Ryan Colasanti is a student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism interning at the Greenbelt News Review.
