By: Savannah Venegas
This past Saturday, on April 18, 2015 Clemente Academy High School students and staff set out on a mission to rid the environment of its litter! Clemente staff, teachers, as well as students turned out for the annual Clean & Green. Everyone arrived around 9:30 a.m. We then sat down to discuss the purpose of the day, review expectations, and set goals. We then ate an immensely nutritional breakfast provided by Ms. Kephart.
We first started out in the Clemente schoolyard, as well as the baseball field, the bleachers, in the flower fences, and outside the tennis court, stopping in short intervals to cheer on our Clemente girls’ softball team and Clemente’s boys’ baseball team who both had games in the same day. Go Wildcats! As we crossed the street, our first stop was the Erie Family Center Health Clinic. Surprisingly, there was a lot of litter in the bushes, grass, as well as in the streets and drains. When we finally reached Humboldt Park, the garbage bags we filled while walking down Division were nice and hefty.
In the park it was, for the most part, spotless because a clean-up crew with the Chicago Earth Day clean-up project beat us there before we could get there. While in the park we found some pretty nifty stuff such as a piece of a Clemente student’s lanyard! When walking back to the school, we found some more Clemente “artifacts” including a lot of completed homework assignments , and a whole bunch of kids Temporary I.D.s. Some were even stuck to the pavement on purpose! I really enjoyed the Clean & Green. I got a real chance to exude my school spirit, as well as to relax my muscles from all that strenuous walking, lifting, and bending down! I also can’t wait to wear my snazzy Clean and Green T-shirt to show everyone what I participated in on Saturday to make the school and community resemble the beauty of the community it truly is.