Maya McFadden Photo
A plastic bottle = “big money.” A paper receipt? “Chump change.”
Those calculations applied to a game with real-life consequences for the environment, made up by Eastview Terrace youth who spent their Veterans Day picking up neighborhood litter.
A dozen volunteers gathered to support a Solar Youth neighborhood clean up program in Fair Haven Heights on their school day off.
The kids got suited up in face masks and gloves. Then each picked up their weapons of choice: a trash picker and a trash bag.
They competed informally throughout the event, seeing who could pick up the most trash the fastest — and, in terms of “chump change” and “big money,” who could discover the most valuable “treasure.”
The program’s mission expanded beyond helping to beautify the neighborhood, said Shannon Dickey, Solar Youth’s site coordinator for the Eastview public-housing development.
The youth were also able to see their community come together and do something positive for their neighbors.
The kids noted the trash around the neighborhood needed to be cleaned up for a number of reasons: To keep their lawns clean for toys. To “save the turtles.” To “leave space for the snow.” To keep raccoons away.
Youth educator Paige Brown, 19, suggested the idea for the event. As a forensic psychology student, Brown said, she learned about how too often “the black community is set up to be underprivileged.” Events like these offer a different approach.
Jack and Destiny Borges with their mom, Marie.
Jack and Destiny Borges, who are 6 and 7, respectively, joined the group of volunteers after receiving a flyer for the program on Tuesday when Brown knocked on doors in the complex.
While Brown, who is adopted, lives in West Haven; her biological family is from Fair Haven. “This affects us all. It’s more than just trash,” she said.
Brown led the group around and over the hills surrounding the townhomes in search of litter. When the group spotted a pile of litter from a distance. the kids raced each other to it to claim dibs on the “treasure.”
While picking up trash, 10-year-old Hezekiah played a game with himself to see how many pieces of litter he could pick up at once with the trash picker. After the group’s half hour of community service, Hezekiah’s record was picking up three pieces of trash at once.
The walk around the neighborhood resulted in five full trash bags of litter, which the group wouldn’t have accomplished without an occasional sword-like battle with the trash pickers along the way.
Sanaii Austin, 10, decided to come out to be with her friends, who participate in Solar Youth. “I just be bored in the house when I can’t go to my cousin’s house to play,” she said.
By the end of the program many of the bags were filled with disposable mask, cigarette butts, and plastic bags and bottles.
Eight-year-old Raymond struggled to use the trash picker until mastering his grabbing technique with two hands.
The kids, ranging from 5 to 10 years old, raced back to the community building after one member yelled out, “Last one is a rotten egg!”
The youth sat together while eating snacks provided by the Solar Youth staff and played a name game with Brown and Dickey. Each volunteer received a thank you treat to “thank them for making a change,” said Dickey.
The group finished off with the cha-cha slide.
“The earth is smiling because of you guys,” Shannon told the youth.
Thank you to Solar Youth, Shannon Dickey, Paige Brown and all the participants in the cleanup. Creating a fun, socially distanced game social event for children while cleaning up their neighborhood and providing snacks is a wonderful way to turn lemons into lemonade. Hopefully more events can be planned where young people can help the elderly and disabled neighbors, clean up and beautify the neighborhood, and create a close-knit community that cares, while creating fun activities for youth, and taking the power of change into their own hands. More neighborhoods need this type of activity.