About 35 AU students found everything from Cadillac tires to wheelchairs to mix tapes while cleaning up a creek in Marvin Gaye Park in Northeast D.C. Saturday morning.
The cleanup of the creek - Watts Branch - was part of the 15th-annual Anacostia River Cleanup and Earth Day Celebration. Members of the AU-George Washington University community service group D.C. Today ... D.C. Tomorrow found out about the event through the non-profit organization Washington Parks and People. School of Public Affairs Leadership Program students also participated in the cleanup.
"We think that it's interesting to come here and you see the trash," said Sarah Lehar, a senior in SPA and member of SPA Leadership who participated in the event. "And at the end, when we walk away, it's going to be absolutely gorgeous. You see the product of your work."
Also present at the worksite were four students from Thurgood Marshall Academy, a public charter high school in Anacostia. The students were part of Teen Action, a group that meets weekly with D.C. Today ... D.C. Tomorrow and also helps on community service events, said Sharon Strich, a GW sophomore.
"We have kids who come back every week," she said. "Every week, because they enjoy it."
Other events include working at homeless shelters and cooking meals at the Ronald McDonald House, the Thurgood Marshall Academy students said. One freshman said she already had the 100 hours of community service she needed to graduate but continued to come to the events anyway.
"Either we come because we want to get out of the house, or because we like the people we work with," said another Thurgood Marshall Academy freshman.
Working with the students at the academy was a large part of the organization's mission, according to Justin Bibb, a co-director and co-founder of D.C. Today ... D.C. Tomorrow.
"Part of our job is to engage them in meaningful ways to not only gain their hours to graduate but also to engage them in the urban issues based in their community," Bibb, a senior in SPA, said.
The cooperation of groups like Teen Action, D.C. Today ... D.C. Tomorrow and the SPA Leadership Program was vital to organization's goal of revitalizing city parks in D.C., said Washington Parks and People Maintenance Chief Behnam Mehrabkhani.
"We are a non-profit organization, and we don't have a lot of people," he said. "Without the volunteer help, we cannot do anything. We have like six or seven people, and this is a 1.6-mile park."
Lehar said she enjoyed helping out.
"The result is there," she said. "You can see it. This is a way to have a direct impact on the community in a short amount of time."
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