MANISTEE — Some Manistee High School students had a beach day Friday, but it’s not what you think.
Instead of swimsuits and suntan lotion, the students had trash bags and rubber gloves. To commemorate Earth Day, the school’s National Honor Society chapter was among those picking up litter in Manistee. The Manistee Friendship Society also held Operation Clean the Streets for the special day.
According to EarthDay.org, “Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.”
NHS members cleaned up at three locations in Manistee, according to junior Jarod Wright.
“I think it was Solana Postma who headed up this group,” Wright said. “For Earth Day, we decided we were going to clean up First Street Beach, Fifth Avenue Beach and the Riverwalk. We decided to clean up garbage around the whole area.”
Postma said with summer just around the corner, selecting which areas to pick up was an easy decision.
“The beaches and Riverwalk are commonly used public areas — especially as summer is coming,” she said. “We’re hoping to clean them up and improve their looks for the improving weather.”
Manistee chapter adviser Amanda Clemons said 42 members took part in the cleanup efforts Friday.
“We actually have about 10 more members who weren’t able to attend for various reasons, but it was still a really great turnout,” she said. “I think it was helped by the lovely weather.”
Wright said the students had a productive morning.
“We got a lot,” he said. “I saw a lot of other groups with their bags almost full.”
Clemons said as the chapter’s adviser, she likes to see the students take charge of the group’s efforts. She said Postma and Dylan Madsen did a great job organizing Friday’s event.
“It’s a pleasure to provide guidance to all of our members and see them develop as individual leaders. Solana, who will be graduating this year, is a wonderful organizer and an asset to the group,” Clemons said. “I am very happy that Dylan had the opportunity to co-chair this event with her. I know that learning from experience and peers is beneficial, so I think we can expect another great Earth Day cleanup from Dylan next year.”
Madsen said all the students worked hard to ensure the event was a success.
“We put the event together to celebrate Earth Day, and what better way to do that than to clean up our beautiful beaches?” he said. “We did this last year and got a lot of positive feedback, so we figured why not do it again. I was very pleased with the amount of trash that was gathered, and with the participation we got.”
Clemons said some of the more interesting items the students found were three pairs of underwear, a fork, a knife, a spoon, a Polaroid photo of a black cat, a time capsule, a geocache — which was left in place — and a Papa Smurf action figure.
“It went well,” Postma said. “We had lots of fun and fully filled around 20 garbage bags of trash.”
The Manistee Friendship Society held its cleanup event along Care Center Drive in Manistee. Executive Director Cassandra Kamaloski said the spot was in desperate need of some TLC.
“One of the bus drivers had told us about this, and then I had another worker from Centra Wellness who said, ‘We drive by there all the time and it’s so bad,'” Kamaloski said. “And then when the bus dropped us off this morning, I was like it, ‘It is bad!'”
Kamaloski said the group has expanded its cleanup efforts since moving into its new location last year.
“Since we moved into the Briny Building we started it around the neighborhood,” she said. “We used to be up by the old bank building (at 475 S. US-31) and we used to do it around the bank building and the Dollar Tree and stuff, but I think this is making a bigger impact because this is what people see every day.”
Kamaloski said the community has shown generosity to the Manistee Friendship Society, so the members enjoy having an opportunity to give back.
“We can’t do a lot, but doing little things like this helps the members to be a part of the community and feel like they’re contributing,” she said. “It’s where we live, so when we can do something, we like to try.”
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