Wednesday is Earth Day, which at Woodlawn Beach means local students picking up hundreds of pounds of garbage.
Niagara Region Ladder City Outdoors Coordinator Fasha Antonio said it has been her pet project for the past three years. Now, it has grown to include 200 students across six schools.
She hopes it sets a standard, so students maintain the emphasis even with their own families in the future.
“It's really good to get kids outdoors and involved with environmental stewardship and keeping public spaces clean and taking care of them," Antonio said. "So, it's just really exciting to see them out here, and they're participating, and I believe, you know, making it a tradition.”
Antonio’s goal is to surpass last year’s record of 400 pounds of garbage collected. There are other clean-up events throughout the year, but Earth Day is the most popular, she said.
West Buffalo Charter School Art Therapist Carla Reeves is in her second year attending. Community improvement efforts like the cleanup help increase students’ sense of empathy and ownership, she said.
“Some of you, know, have gone to Woodlawn Beach. Some of you will go to Woodlawn Beach. So, if you're sitting on the beach, do you want to be sitting on a giant, you know, garbage bag that you don't know where it came from?" said Reeves. "Or would you prefer to sit on, like, a cleaner spot? And they're like, ‘Nope, definitely cleaner.’”
The initiative is appreciated because the charter school encourages student activism opportunities, whether that’s helping clean the beach or taking the student advisory club to decorate a food pantry and stock shelves, Reeves said.
