1st Pinetown's Park Pick-Up
One of our Troop Scouters has been in contact with a local group called Pinetown Tidy Town, who organise litter clean-ups in our area. We heard from them how much work needs to be done in keeping our town clean. We suggested to them that we could tackle a park which is next to a large high school and ends up filled with a lot of the students' rubbish. Our goal was to tidy the park, and we found we had so many helpers that we were able to reach all the way to the end of all the adjoining roads.
Pinetown Tidy Town and a local estate agent joined us in the park, and provided rubbish bags, gloves, and cold drinks for the Meerkats, Cubs and Scouts for when they had finished their hard work. The young people teamed up into small groups and spread out across the park, tidying as they went. A few parents of our Meerkats and Cubs joined us, too, and the job was done quickly and efficiently.
The park we tidied is used by the students from the nearby high school as well as residents from the surrounding streets, so the impact amounts to at least 1000 people.
The clean-up was very successful, but we discovered that this park is really too small a space for the numbers we have to help. We discussed another larger area closer to our Scout hall to tackle next time, and to repeat the task once a quarter to keep the area in good condition.