I have been totally impressed with the responses from our student participants to provide feedback about our Alternative Spring Break Trip! I love the feedback and it helps me plan for years to come. Some of the stellar students went the extra mile and compiled their trip reflections into an article and personal web page that I thought should be recognized.
Picking up Garbage Ya’ll
An HWS Herald Article by Katherine Hoering and Lauren Ellmers
While many people spent their spring break lounging along pristine blue waters, seventeen Hobart and William Smith students choose to volunteer their week in muddy water picking up trash. The trip involved traveling to Louisville, KY for an Alternative Spring Break organized by the Finger Lakes Institute. As a volunteer, we helped clean the Ohio River with Living Lands and Waters. LL & W is a non-profit organization that focuses on protection, preservation, and restoration of America’s major rivers. Their projects include collecting garbage from major rivers, educating their volunteers through workshops, removing invasive plants such as honeysuckle, and to helping to restore native vegetation by planting river bottom trees, such as oaks and hickories.
Chad Pregracke, founder of Living Lands and Waters, grew up on the Mississippi River and worked as a commercial fisherman and commercial shell diver during his teenage years. It was during this time that he noted the severely polluted river and shoreline. In 1998, he founded Living Lands and Waters. With a four-fleet “garbage barge” and several small skiffs, him and his crew travel to various shorelines of America’s rivers. The crew along with the assistance of volunteers devote their time and energy to help clean the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Anacostia and Potomac Rivers.
Throughout the week (March 16-22, 2008), our group, along with thirty other volunteers from SUNY Geneseo, travelled to five different sites to pick up garbage. As a volunteer, we started the days early by boarding into boats and traveling down the river to the pick-up sites. We spent our days walking through islands and flood plains searching for trash, and climbing among log jams picking up plastic bottles. We collected an array of items including oil barrels, TV’s, refrigerators, hundreds of plastic bottles, pieces of Styrofoam, and, not to mention, an occasional buried car. Overall, we accumulated an estimated 20 tons of garbage!
Working with the crew from Living Lands and Waters was inspiring. They were all light-hearted, funny, and hard working individuals dedicated to making a difference. Whether it be cleaning a river, or picking up trash on the side of the road, we all can learn from their actions. Collectively, we should do a little more to help clean our environment. Need some ideas as to how to contribute? Pickup trash you see around campus, participate in Recyclemania, or attend the FLI's Seneca Lake Beach Cleanup September 20, 2008.
If you are interested in learning more about Living Lands and Waters check out their website at http://www.livinglandsandwaters.org/
If you are interested in learning more about future Finger Lakes Institute Alternative Spring Break Trip opportunities or other public service programs, contact Sarah Meyer at smeyer@hws.edu.
An HWS Herald Article by Katherine Hoering and Lauren Ellmers
While many people spent their spring break lounging along pristine blue waters, seventeen Hobart and William Smith students choose to volunteer their week in muddy water picking up trash. The trip involved traveling to Louisville, KY for an Alternative Spring Break organized by the Finger Lakes Institute. As a volunteer, we helped clean the Ohio River with Living Lands and Waters. LL & W is a non-profit organization that focuses on protection, preservation, and restoration of America’s major rivers. Their projects include collecting garbage from major rivers, educating their volunteers through workshops, removing invasive plants such as honeysuckle, and to helping to restore native vegetation by planting river bottom trees, such as oaks and hickories.
Chad Pregracke, founder of Living Lands and Waters, grew up on the Mississippi River and worked as a commercial fisherman and commercial shell diver during his teenage years. It was during this time that he noted the severely polluted river and shoreline. In 1998, he founded Living Lands and Waters. With a four-fleet “garbage barge” and several small skiffs, him and his crew travel to various shorelines of America’s rivers. The crew along with the assistance of volunteers devote their time and energy to help clean the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Anacostia and Potomac Rivers.
Throughout the week (March 16-22, 2008), our group, along with thirty other volunteers from SUNY Geneseo, travelled to five different sites to pick up garbage. As a volunteer, we started the days early by boarding into boats and traveling down the river to the pick-up sites. We spent our days walking through islands and flood plains searching for trash, and climbing among log jams picking up plastic bottles. We collected an array of items including oil barrels, TV’s, refrigerators, hundreds of plastic bottles, pieces of Styrofoam, and, not to mention, an occasional buried car. Overall, we accumulated an estimated 20 tons of garbage!
Working with the crew from Living Lands and Waters was inspiring. They were all light-hearted, funny, and hard working individuals dedicated to making a difference. Whether it be cleaning a river, or picking up trash on the side of the road, we all can learn from their actions. Collectively, we should do a little more to help clean our environment. Need some ideas as to how to contribute? Pickup trash you see around campus, participate in Recyclemania, or attend the FLI's Seneca Lake Beach Cleanup September 20, 2008.
If you are interested in learning more about Living Lands and Waters check out their website at http://www.livinglandsandwaters.org/
If you are interested in learning more about future Finger Lakes Institute Alternative Spring Break Trip opportunities or other public service programs, contact Sarah Meyer at smeyer@hws.edu.
Thanks again! Also, if any other trip participants would like to add their reflections to this blog or would like a link added, just let me know.
-Sarah :)
