Students clean up riverfront litter

“It’s really been bothering me lately to see how dirty our city is. It seems like this year especially, there’s a lot of garbage everywhere,” she said. “So I thought maybe we could do something hands-on and contribute in our own way.”

As a class, they chose a location that was public, but close enough to the school so they could walk to the site, Schemenauer explained.

The students will take part in a cleanup of the school grounds, but they wanted to do something for the city, their teacher said.

One Grade 8 student said it’s important to respect the planet. “A clean environment equals a happy life,” said Bria Lindsay, 14.

She found buckets, dirty t-shirts, dog feces and balloons during the cleanup, which lasted just more than an hour. When she saw all of the trash, she said she questioned why people would want to make the place dirty.

“There’s garbage cans everywhere and there[‘s] … garbage beside the garbage cans, like, you’re too lazy to dump it in,” she said.

Another Grade 8 student, Morgan Eninew, 13, said seeing all of the garbage was disappointing because the area is really nice. She found cups, beer cans, beer bottles and candy wrappers.

“It was disappointing to see how people treated it,” she said.

She’s asking Prince Albert residents to take pride in where they live.

“Make sure our city looks clean.”

Schemenauer said seeing the amount of litter has been depressing. But instead of being depressed, she said she thought of the role she could play in doing something about the problem. It’s why she involved her students in the cleanup and why she’s challenging other schools and community groups to hold their own cleanups.

“Because if we all work together, we can make this a better place and it’s going to take some manpower,” she said.

“By getting groups out, like a school group, is perfect. Me, by myself, I couldn’t have cleaned up as much garbage … as my whole class did and we involved the Grade 7s as well. Together we can do a lot.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by Thia James

Students clean up riverfront litter

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