Grade 10 and 11 students from Scott Collegiate came together to clean up the community on Friday.
“Our community is where we live and if we want to live in a nice clean place then we are going to have to clean it ourselves and if we don’t then who will,” Jaylyn Lerat, a Grade 11 student, said.
She thought of the idea, and her teacher and class mates helped make it happen. As a group, they decided a neighborhood cleanup would show initiative and change,
The students split into groups and walked several blocks with garbage bags, gloves and litter pickers.
“So I just posed the question ‘what would be something that the community could benefit from?’ and they decided a cleanup would be something that would be very beneficial,” Sophie Carteri, the leadership teacher for Scott Collegiate said.
The students said the community’s reaction made it worthwhile.
“So we has a couple cars stop and say thank you for cleaning up north central. Then we had a couple people come out of their houses and also just say thank you and everything,” said Samantha Kingerski, a Grade 11 student who participated in the cleanup. “Most people just throw their garbage on the ground which is not good for the environment but it’s also not goof for the children that play in their yards or at the playground,” adds Kingerski.
As the students strive to better their community, they hope to also inspire others.
“I hope that we can have more community clean ups like this, and I hope that a lot of younger kids are encouraged by us and our class to clean up the community and pick up garbage,” said Lerat.
