Anybody who remembers the original Earth Day will know that people gathering together to pick up public trash was one of its defining acts. Clover Doperalski thinks it still should be.
“I remember on Earth Day in elementary school, we had a community trash pickup,” said Doperalski, a senior at Concord High School who lives in Deerfield. “I thought that would be a great way to give back to my community.”
Doperalski is a member of the National Honor Society, which urges students to find or create events that involve service to the community. For her project, she approached Concord Greenspace, a volunteer environmental organization, about hosting a city clean-up at White Park on Saturday morning.
Although Earth Day is today, Wednesday, April 22, holding the event on a Saturday would allow more people to attend. Anybody could show up and join in โ and they did. The group distributed Blue Bags from Concord General Services for people to take to an area and fill with some of the mess that shows up after winter snows melt away.
The program’s structure was relatively low-key, with few assigned routes. Participants brought their own gloves, grabbers and other materials. Filled bags were left at assigned locations and picked by city staff.
Doperalski acknowledges that in a world facing increasing climate change, widespread plastic pollution and a host of other environmental problems, picking up trash is only a small gesture. But gestures are important, too.
“I would like to do something that would forever change the course of climate change and reverse the damage that has been done,” she said. “But little actions can make a little bit of a difference to try to preserve what we have left. […] We can have fun with this event but it also makes a little bit of a difference, inspires people to make a little bit of change.”
