Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

I am an officer of the Alpha Iota Gamma chapter of Phi Theta Kappa at Johnson County Community College. We do a lot of community service activities in the area and wanted to do something more towards our year's goal "Going Green". An officer suggested picking up litter along the highway but a local park was chosen instead. Stoll Park is a park loved by everyone in the community. There is a soccer field, barbecue pits, doggie park, playground, and volleyball courts. On Saturdays the park is filled with happy families having parties, watching soccer, or playing with their puppies. One downside to being such a popular park is the litter problem. Although there are trash receptacles placed around the park, people still toss their garbage wherever they please. The piles of cigarette butts around the grounds and in the parking lots is disgusting and dangerous for birds and small children. Cleaning up this park of all the cigarette butts, broken bottles, and fast food wrappers protects not only the children, but animals as well. The officers chose an early morning when we had a fall break to go out and clean up the park. We came laden with trash bags, rubber gloves, coats, mittens, and scarves. After three hours of climbing in bushes and crawling through parking lots we had cleaned up the entire park. Looking back at the parking lot that was once littered with cigarette butts was the most apparent change. The good feeling we had when we dumped the four trash bags into the dumpster was incomparable. And the tingling in our fingers on the way back reminded us that we did something great for the community, and something great for us.