Summer Youth Projects has come to an end! It seemed like just yesterday that I had my first meeting with Randy, being asked lots of questions about my project, of which I had only a vague idea of what it was going to be like. This week, I spent a lot of time working on my final presentation for Friday and my final poster, which is pretty much the sum of all the work I've done so far in my project. I hope to educate people on why littering is harmful with this poster, and inspire others to take action themselves. Even though I won't have time to post up this poster before the end of SYP, I still plan on putting it up around the neighbourhood (Trout Lake, Library, CCNH, Schools, etc.) after SYP is done because I really do want to make a difference in the community. I'm really glad I had the chance to do Summer Youth Projects because I learned so much about leadership and planning events/projects, and I grew as a person and a leader. So thank you to Randy and everyone at Cedar Cottage for supporting me and my project, I had a great time.
This week, I ran sessions 2 and 3 of Greener and Cleaner community. During session two, we went around Gladstone and the surrounding streets, and in session 3 we went around Trout Lake. During both of these sessions, we again managed to pick up lots of litter and clean up the community. I kept better track of data during these sessions, and now have a pretty good idea of what kind of things people are littering and where. One small problem I encountered during these sessions was finding volunteers. I asked many of my own friends to help, but I learned that it would be hard to find people to help you pick up garbage on a hot summers day. But despite the low number of volunteers, both sessions still ran smoothly and without much trouble. One highlight from these sessions were the encouraging smiles and compliments form people who saw what we were doing. For next week, I need to create informational posters that show what I've done in my project and will hopefully educate people on the implications of littering and possibly even inspire somebody else to take action and clean up the neighbourhood themselves. With the end in sight, I feel proud of all the work I've been able to accomplish. Moment of the Week: In this moment, describe the amount of garbage found in the photographic area. Compare the amount of garbage here vs. another location you've cleaned up in previous sessions. Why do you think this is the case? (i.e. Why do you think the amount of garbage found in this site is what it is?)
During sessions 3 of Greener and Cleaner Community, we went around Trout Lake to pick up garbage. However, compared to the locations we went to in sessions 1 and 2, Trout Lake had barely any litter to pick up. In fact, most of the garbage we found during this session was picked up during the walk to and from Cedar Cottage. Inside the Community Centre, I actually saw a poster with information on garbage and littering, which makes me think that Trout Lake would have their own group of volunteers that periodically go around and pick up garbage themselves. This shows that if a organization or place is concious about garbage in it's location, it will make a difference visually and environmentally. This week, I ran my first session of Greener and Cleaner Community. Overall, I think it went pretty well. In the beginning, there was a small problem because one of my participants was late, which made the session run longer then expected. Along the walk, everything went well, and we picked up a lot of garbage, more than I expected. Surprisingly, Selkirk had a lot of litter, which was mostly food containers and bags, even though there is a garbage can next to the playground, which makes me think that kids playing at Selkirk at either uneducated about littering or are just too lazy to walk to the garbage can. I think that we picked up most of the garbage along the route, but it is very possible that we missed some because of the small number of people and I didn't want to keep the participants for too long and be behind schedule. It also turned out that 4 participants may have been the perfect number of people, since there was only 3 tongs and one bucket. A neighbour even gave us two thumbs up when she saw us picking up garbage near her house! Once the session was over and I emptied out the garbage to take pictures, it was very time consuming and troublesome to sweep it all up with a broom and dustpan, so for next week it would be good to have another way of cleaning it up (maybe with a shovel). Moment of the Week:
This has been a busy and important week for me. The first session of my project begins next week and this week, I have finished my poster, walked the routes for my sessions, and finalized my session plan. Now, I am finding participants for my sessions, which may be the hardest part of my project, considering it's not very glamorous or because teenagers have other things to do then clean up the neighbourhood, but if I find even around 5-8 people, I think it will be enough. Having smaller groups may even provide some advantages, like being able to communicate to them more efficiently and everyone will have something to do, in contrast to if I had a group of 30 people, there wouldn't be enough garbage for everyone! All in all, things are looking fairly straightforward from now on and everything has gone smoothly this week. The forecast calls for sun on all of my session dates, so hopefully it won't be pouring like it was this weekend!
This week has again clarified what I need to do to make this project successful. I know the steps I need to take to achieve my vision of what the end result of my project will be like. I am feeling more confident and excited now. Hopefully in the weeks to come things will go smoothly and my project will be a successful one. There were no challenges this week apart from my meeting with Randy happening a little late, although I will be sure to check my junk mail from now on to find his emails!
This week for my project has gone well. Through my one on one meeting with Randy, we created a more concise and organized plan for my project, which has made this whole thing less stressful because I now know what steps to take to complete my project. As for the things that didn't go well, I guess I could have completed all the tasks for week 1 earlier, but due to summer school, sports, and family commitments, these things were done rather late. Hopefully in the future, I will find time during the weeks to come to work on this project.
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Alan ZA student at Gladstone Secondary going into Grade 12. ArchivesCategories |