Monday, May 11, 2009

Great American Clean-up


Saturday we participated in the Great American Clean-up with a large group of people from our church. Part of my assignment was to take pictures. My husband was one of the leaders, so he drove from site to site restocking water and checking on needs, while I took pictures. Our kids stayed with friends at one of the sites to pick up trash.
Some areas were street side others were parks. Bottles and cans and bits of paper were the sorts of things I expected to find, and there were plenty of those things.

I was amazed, though, at the some of the things found in the parks.

Tires, couch cushions, carpet, nets, car parts, water fountain spigot, etc., etc., etc. Completely random stuff.

Kids of all ages were helping and being grossed out at the things they found.
I'm hoping that it will help keep them mindful of taking care of their planet. We all have to do our part.

Application to writing? Uh! Clean up your prose so as not to gross out your readers. Heehee! See! Everything has an application to writing.

18 comments:

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Nice, Lois! I need to do stuff like this. You're so awesome. Love the pics, too. And yes, cleaning up our prose (and our planet) is essential!

lotusgirl said...

Heehee! It was a great experience. The kids enjoyed it too.

Bowman said...

You cheated, but I'll let it slide since you helped Ms. Planet.

Natalie Whipple said...

I feel much better knowing your parks are a little cleaner this morning:) I do hate litter. I can't help but pick it up when I'm out and about. Thanks for doing your part.

Tess said...

What a great way to spend Mother's Day weekend -- cleaning up Mother Earth :)

PJ Hoover said...

Agree! Everything can be related to writing!

Danyelle L. said...

*snicker*

It all comes back to writing in the end. ;-)

Pen Pen said...

No garbage, no problem!! :)
I just got a 'Trees are for hugging' bumper magnet--so I'm pretty sure my contribution is a bit bigger than urs...Don't feel bad tho- not everybody can make as big of a change as me :)
AND-
the past few days I've been missin ur bloggy awesomeness cuz I've been wrapped up in some difficult life stuff-BUT-feel better that I'm back from that pit now! :) wooosa!

lotusgirl said...

Justus, I guess I did. Sort of.

Natalie, I hate litter too. I like to clean it up when I can.

Tess, Nice point.

PJ and Danyelle, I always like to bring things back around to writing.

PenPen, Yea for your bumper magnet! I'm glad you're doing better. It's nice to have you back.

Traci said...

Lois...is that you in the picture? You always have such an eloquent way of saying things. :-) Thanks for the wonderful post.

lotusgirl said...

Litgirl. Wow. If only I were that young! The girl in the picture is about 10. Haha! Thanks!

Sherrie Petersen said...

What a great project! And, um, yeah, I'll go clean up some prose right now :^)

Rebecca Ramsey said...

What a great thing to do with your family and church. Awesome.

lotusgirl said...

Sherrie, good luck with that.

Becky, Yeah, I feel really good about it.

JaneyV said...

**Applause! Applause!**

You are to be commended highly for your dedication to the environment. I have never understood those who are so cavalier with their rubbish. I will recycle everything I possibly can and throw away as little as possible. And most importantly leave nothing for anyone else to clean up. I pass this on to my kids too.

I also commend you on your tenuous link to writing. That made me laugh!

J.R. Johansson said...

How great that you got to be a part of that, and great job comparing it to writing! LOL :D

Kelly H-Y said...

Way to go!!! And, I loved your application to writing! :-)

lotusgirl said...

Janey, Yea! I LOVE to make people laugh!

Jenn, Thanks!

Kelly, *Bows* I'm a genius, eh?