The first of four days of cleanups of litter, trash and garbage on Thursday finished with areas in Schuylkill County looking much better for people living, working and traveling through the area.
The annual spring cleanup is organized by Schuylkill Keep It Pretty, a nonprofit organization that has been sponsoring cleanups since 1986, the year it was founded. Those 30 years have seen thousands of volunteers from all walks of life provide a tremendous community service twice each year during the spring and fall cleanups.
SKIP Executive Director Darlene D. Dolzani said there were groups that informed her they would do projects on the first day. Some cleanups scheduled were:
• Pottsville Business Association — The organization would clean from Burger King to Sheetz in Pottsville and then do part of the Gordon Nagle Trail
• Penn State students — Cleaning from the Freeze to Greenview down by Renniger’s Farmer’s Market
• Big Brothers and Big Sisters — All of Progress Avenue in Pottsville
• M&T Bank employees — Cleaning the intersection of routes 183 and 895 around Summit Station Fire Company
“The cleanups are going well,” Dolzani said. “Omnova (Solutions, Auburn) had 10 employees go out and got 26 bags near the plant on (Route) 61. And Mrs. (Kathleen) Turner near Pine Grove does the jughandle near the Pilot (truck stop) near Route 443 and she cleaned that up. I know the kids from Williams Valley were out on Rausch Creek Road in Tremont Township today.”
There is much emphasis on getting young people involved in the cleanup, with students in at least 12 school districts hitting the streets and roads and other areas for the cleaner environment. Today, which is Earth Day, the students will be involved in the “School Challenge” that will be held at the Schuylkill Technology Center at Mar Lin.
“After their cleanup, there will be a program with lunch at the south vo-tech,” Dolzani said. “We will be judging their cleanup efforts and the winning high school will be receiving a special trophy. There are at least 12 school districts that are competing.”
There will also be gift certificates and other prizes to be awarded.
“It is a fun and exciting event, because the kids are really into it,” Dolzani said. “The school who picks up the most trash is the winner.”
Dolzani said the enthusiasm of the students in cleaning their surroundings really shows during today’s challenge.
One of the school districts involved is Mahanoy Area, which had two groups of students doing different projects.
Environmental science teacher Cathy Stone said 18 of her students took a very long walk to clean in Mahanoy City, starting from the high school and moving east the length of Mahanoy Street to the East End Park, and then back to the school going west along the length of Centre Street. Stone has had students going out every year around Earth Day.
“This project on the day before Earth Day works out very well this year,” Stone said.
Stone also plans to have another team of students going out today for the School Challenge.
“We start teaching the kids very young about the importance of recycling and controlling their litter when they’re outside, and overall just being good stewards of the environment,” Stone said. “And then we try to continue that through their school years. Competitions like the Envirothon also help. Mahanoy Area takes three teams to that. And I think that SKIP make it very appealing to the students because they have scholarships available. Some of my high school kids look forward to doing two cleanups a year so they can try for that scholarship.”
At the middle school level, the students cleaned the campus property, according to middle school Principal Michael Heater.
“One of our board members, who is also the (Mahanoy City) borough manager, Dan Lynch, let us know about participating in the SKIP cleanup this year,” Heater said. “When I got the information, I was pretty excited about it. We’re always talking about pride here, and once we found out about this opportunity, I kicked it out to some of my clubs and activities and they were pretty excited about it.”
Heater said the students involved were in the National Junior Honor Society, Envirothon and student council members. About 45 middle school students participated.