Carkeek Park Cleanup w/STAR

For my service learning project I did a clean up at Carkeek Park with Star. There was about 17 people and most of us raked trails. A few people cleared dead logs. We were clearing the leaves off the trails to minimize the mud that would be on the trails this winter. carkeekstars@gmail.com- The email for the director of the event Dale. We worked on the 18th from 9am-11. 

-Before-

-After-

-Maya took this photo-

       I was surprised that all the people walking the trails who passed us said thank you. I have done other little projects similar to this before but no know acknowledged what I was doing. All the people there to volunteer were happy and hard working. I really got a feeling from the director that he felt ownership for the park, and that's what motivated him to work hard to better it. I also got that feeling from the joggers and dog walkers. They use these trails so often that they feel like owners or responsible for their park. When people like Dale start to feel responsible for a place, a wetland, park, or reserve they put in effort to clean and protect it! This whole planet is something we as humans collectively own and are responsible for. The people working with STARS understood this. So they came to their park on their day off and cleaned the trails, picked up trash and cleared out fallen trees. It's important for us to claim our ownership of our planet, and take care to fulfill our responsibilities to protect and better nature for every organism living here. 

      

       Another thing I learned is that I'm bad at holding a rake because I ended up getting four pretty great blisters from raking. They still hurt. I wore gloves but my skin just hates me. Anyways, I put a lot of effort into this project and I hope the trees wait to drop more leaves until everyone gets to appreciate the work we did there Saturday. I wanted to include photos of my blisters but I realized that most people would think that's pretty gross. You can just imagine it instead.