Little People, Big Impact
Litter, litter, everywhere! Yuk! Our poor earth needs to be cleaned. Every Saturday morning at 8am, a parkrun for 5km is held at our local park but the litter there is generally awful so we decided as a Den to give back to the community and have our Meerkats do a pre and post litter clean up so that the walkers and runners had a clean and clear path to use. They were very grateful. Well done to Harmelia Gardens Air Scouts group Meerkats. I am super proud of you for your commitment.
We arranged with the organizer 2 weeks in advance to meet at the park on the morning of the parkrun and do a pre litter clean up with the Meerkats. They were more than happy for us to offer to give back to the community. The park was in Edenvale, Johannesburg. Notification to the Meerkat parents went out and responses were received. A permit was submitted to our SGL and signed off telling me it was "good to go".
These parkruns are attended by at least 100 people each Saturday morning. Running or walking in a space that is clean and free of litter is important to them - as well as just generally keeping the park clean. The participants were very grateful to us for starting their day on a clean 'slate'.
We worked as a team. As the saying goes, "Many hands make light work."
We learned about eco-systems and the impact of litter on them, too. Some of the early morning spider webs had actually been spun ON the litter and had to be broken down to get rid of the litter. Sorry, little spiders. How to make it better? I would suggest having more dustbins with lids around the park so that litter couldn't be blown around by the wind.
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