Earth Day provides a multitude of opportunities to show our respect for the planet, from even the smallest cleanups. On St. Thomas Saturday morning, about 30 Boy Scouts and a group of ScotiaBank employees celebrated the 40th anniversary of the day scurrying around Frenchtown cleaning up debris left by the less scrupulous – "just lazy," in words of one Scout.
Though a couple days after the official Earth Day, the cleanup was scheduled for a non-school/non-work day.
"Team-up to Clean-up" was the idea of ScotiaBank employees Amber Stein and Christine Lee. "We had such a good turnout," said Stein, "we are thinking of making it an annual event."
Though it was announced for a 10 a.m. start, Stein said Scouts started showing up at the little red tent with a Scotiabank logo set up at the Joseph Aubain ballpark way ahead of time.
"We had a lot of support," she said. "The government Housing, Parks and Recreation office let us use the ballfield. Along with the bank, Diageo and VI Ecotours pitched in."
They cleaned mostly around the bayside and the shoreline stretching to Villa Olga. Esau David, a sixth-grader at Gladys Abraham Elementary School, said he found a bottle of toxic waste in the water. "It was filled with oil from a boat," he said. Dekawni Norford, a Charlotte Amalie High School 10th grader, worked alongside David. "We found lots of beer cans and bottles, pieces of plastic, things that will hurt animals," he said gesturing at the 25 bags neatly lined up by the fence.
David lamented the amount of McDonald’s waste he found on the street. "People are just too lazy," he said. "It makes a big difference to clean up after yourself." He said he sees his pals at school walk off, leaving trash behind. "I say something to them," he said, "but, they still do it. They’re just lazy."
Though this was David’s first time, Norford said he is an old hand at the cleanups. The tall teenager said he’s helped before in Coastal Zone Management cleanups at Coki Point.
Norford said he enjoyed the morning. "It’s a good thing to be doing," he said. "It makes a difference."
Though small, it does make a difference. The relatively minuscule effort by a handful of dedicated folks on St. Thomas upholds the spirit of the larger effort.
From the first indication that something was dreadfully wrong in our environment through the observations of "Silent Spring" author Rachel Carson in 1962, the movement to protect our natural resources has gained awareness.
The Earth Day Network says, "Forty years after the first Earth Day, the world is in greater peril than ever. While climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, it also presents the greatest opportunity – an unprecedented opportunity to build a healthy, prosperous, clean energy economy now and for the future.
"Earth Day 2010 is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy. Join the more than one billion people in 190 countries that are taking action for Earth Day."
The Boy Scouts and ScotiaBank employees did just that.
