Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

My family and I visited Terry Hershey Park on Memorial Drive. I decided to help clean this public park because since I usually go jogging there, it would benefit me as well as others if there were no litter there. I was accompanied by my mother and 2 younger brothers. We power walked together with each one carrying plastic bags and wearing gloves as a safety precaution. Many people were curious as to what we were doing and we just explained to them we were there to clean up the park. They were very supportive and complimented us on what we were doing for the community. We arrived at the park at 9 in the morning because it would be too hot to power walk later on in the day since Houston summers are scorching. I have to admit that we didn't have to pick up a large amount of litter since the park is well taken care of. The things we did pick up most of were empty sports drink bottles. What that made me realize is that besides the community wanting to stay hydrated, they prefer Gatorade over Powerade. We also collected a lot of McDonald's bags. There is a picnic area in the park and that's where most of the bags were. We didn't find any hazardous things, which is always a plus. We got to talk to some of the park patrols and they helped us by allowing us to ride on their carts for awhile. Although we didn't see a lot of wild animals or anything like that, there were a lot of people jogging with their dogs. The cutest thing to me was seeing an old couple walking their Chihuahuas. It was absolutely adorable!

I have always tried my best to keep our environment clean and this community service project has made me feel even better about my effort. My family knows that I don't like to dirty and litter our environment so they know not to throw things away where they don't belong. This project has inspired me even more to keep the earth clean. Nature is a beautiful thing and we humans are the only destruction of it. Animals don't destroy the environment since it's their place to live. In order to keep Terry Hershey Park clean, I think that there should be more trash cans located along the jogging path. I only counted three trash cans during a 4 mile stretch of path. To me that is insufficient since people don't want to be carrying their trash as they jog/run since it's a nuisance. If more trash cans were built, I can assure you that there would be less trash than there already was.

Photo courtesy of Texas Sierra Club website.