“Trash, trash, trash,” rang throughout the woods near the Little Rock Air Force Base Fam Camp.
As children ran down a nature trail looking for trash to pick up, they sounded this alarm when they found some.
Twenty-four students and their moms from the local home-schooling organization Classical Conversations of Cabot visited Team Little Rock April 20, 2018, to clean up Nubbin Ridge Nature Trail and part of the big base lake to learn about and celebrate the 48th Annual Earth Day.
Dana Hardage, 19th Civil Engineer Squadron natural resource manager, worked with Robin Werner, a LRAFB military spouse and home-schooler to organize the day’s events, which included crafts at the end of the day. She started the day by gathering the attendees for a brief history of Earth Day and to talk about its theme.
“This year’s theme for Earth Day is ‘end plastic pollution,’ and we are going to focus on that,” Hardage said.
The group also received some additional information about the Earth’s resources.
“Plastic bags are terrible: You use them once. They last forever; but they don’t go away,” Hardage relayed. “Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags a year, but you should know most grocery stores have recycling containers in the store for plastic bags because they will recycle them.”
After the lesson on Earth Day and conservation tips, the group made its way toward the trail for the more interactive part of the day.
“Classical Conversations meets once weekly to teach our kids in a classical Christian method. We are here cleaning up the trail on base, as we think it’s very important for our children to respect and take care of the earth that God has given us,” said Merie Ryan, director of Classical Conversations of Cabot.
“The trail opened in 1993, and we are celebrating its 25th anniversary,” Hardage added. “It’s a really nice nature trail. It’s paved, and along the way, there are multiple informational signs that tell you about the area. The signs have gotten dirty and we’re going to clean them and the trail as we go along.”
Once finished with the trail, the group then crossed Arnold Drive to clean up a small area of the big Base Lake before going back to the Fam Camp to divide up the trash collected into recycling bins.
They ended the day by building birdhouses out of plastic bottles and wild flower bath bombs from shredded paper and flower seeds.
“This was absolutely a success,” said Werner, the event organizer. “We got an opportunity to come out and clean up trash, and teach our next generation how to take care of our environment and make tomorrow better.”